(Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co.’s blockbuster obesity shot Zepbound helped people with type 1 diabetes lose more than a fifth of their body weight over a yearlong study, suggesting the drug may help patients with the less common autoimmune form of the disease.
Zepbound outperformed Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic, with people taking that shot paring 9.1% of their body weight for up to a year in the study, presented Friday at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Madrid. However, the researchers cautioned against a direct comparison because of the way the trial was conducted.
The results show the drugs, in demand for weight loss as well as type 2 diabetes, may have benefits for people with type 1 diabetes too, said Janet Snell-Bergeon, a professor at the University of Colorado, who led the trial.
Ozempic is also known as Wegovy when it’s prescribed for weight loss with higher doses of the key ingredient semaglutide. Many patients in the study didn’t take higher doses of Ozempic, said Snell-Bergeon.
Off-label use of the powerful new shots is becoming increasingly common in type 1 diabetes, Snell-Bergeon said, and doctors have called for larger studies to show more clearly how much the drugs can help patients. Novo and Lilly are the world’s biggest makers of insulin for type 1 diabetics, but neither company’s weight loss shot is approved for the disease.
“This should be reassuring that if you are using these drugs off label, that they are effective for most people, and they seem to be safe,” Snell-Bergeon said. Her team used detailed medical records to compare results for patients at their clinic. The study followed 50 people who’d taken Zepbound, 50 who’d taken Ozempic or Wegovy and 50 who didn’t take a weight-loss shot.
People who took Zepbound were also able to lower their daily dose of insulin by an average of 18% after a year of use, a reduction the research team called substantial. Control of blood sugar within a desirable range improved by a similar amount for both Zepbound and Ozempic.
Unlike type 2 diabetes, which is heavily influenced by diet and lifestyle, type 1 diabetes is caused when the body attacks its own insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Patients must take insulin all their lives in order to manage their blood sugar. Nearly two-thirds of people with type 1 diabetes in the US also are overweight or have obesity, Snell-Bergeon said.
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