New Lilly GLP-1 obesity drug adds action, benefits

Hello Health Rounds readers! Today we have a trio of studies presented at the recent European Society of Cardiology meeting in London, including the latest data on what could be an improvement on the current crop of wildly popular weight-loss drugs. 

In breaking news, see these stories from our Reuters journalists: US will still pay at least twice as much after negotiating drug prices; no link between mobile phones and brain cancer; South Korea denies hospital emergency rooms collapsing; fake cows ready for milking at state fairs as bird flu looms; and blood tests allow 30-year estimates of women’s cardio risks.

Eli Lilly’s experimental next generation weight-loss drug mimics three hormones instead of just one or two and continues to show promising clinical trial results for additional health benefits, the company said.

Researchers reported at the European Society of Cardiology meeting that Lilly’s retatrutide significantly reduced patients’ blood lipid levels and cardiovascular risks in a mid-stage trial.

At 48 weeks, for example, retatrutide had reduced levels of triglycerides by up to 40.6%, and levels of a protein called apoC-III involved in glucose metabolism and inflammation by 38%.

Lilly had earlier announced that in the same trial patients taking injections of retatrutide at the highest dose had lost roughly 24% of their body weight, exceeding what the current popular weight-loss drugs demonstrated in clinical trials.

Obese patients in the trial also had significant improvements in their liver fat.

Like tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound, and semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic from Novo Nordisk, retatrutide mimics the appetite- and blood-sugar-reducing effects of a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1.

Tirzepatide and retatrutide also mimic a second hormone called glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) to reduce appetite and blood sugar.

Retatrutide also mimics a third hormone, glucagon, promoting fat breakdown for energy consumption and preventing dangerously low blood sugar levels.

Lilly is currently testing retatrutide in late-stage trials.

Older patients with a common type of heart attack and multiple narrowed coronary arteries should have all of those arteries unclogged, not just the one that caused the heart attack, researchers said at the ESC meeting.

A so-called ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, or STEMI, is a heart attack that happens when an artery carrying blood to the heart becomes completely blocked. The heart often suffers permanent damage as a result.

When younger patients with a STEMI have multiple other diseased arteries along with the “culprit” artery, doctors often revascularize, or clear out, all of those blood vessels, placing stents as necessary during a catheterization procedures to keep the arteries open.

However, this strategy, which takes longer and potentially raises the risks of complications, is currently underused in older patients, the researchers said.

Analyzing data pooled from seven studies involving 1,733  patients over age 75, researchers found that at four years after the procedure, complete revascularization was associated with a 22% combined reduction in death from any cause, heart attack, or need for another artery-unclogging procedure compared with opening just the culprit artery.

A few of the patients were followed for roughly six years. By that time, the difference between the groups in the combined endpoint was no longer statistically significant. However, there was still a 24% reduction in the combined rate of cardiovascular-related deaths and heart attacks for the complete revascularization group.

There were no significant differences between the groups in procedure-related complications, including stroke, clogged stents, major bleeding, or kidney problems from the use of dye, according to a report of the study published in Circulation.

The researchers are waiting for additional data on study participants to provide further information on longer-term outcomes, Dr. Gianluca Campo of the University Hospital of Ferrara in Italy, who presented the data, said in a statement.

Whether you take your blood pressure pills in the morning or at night doesn’t matter, a new Canadian study confirms.

In a large analysis reported at the ESC meeting, researchers found the timing of administration made no difference in major cardiovascular events or safety.

“Patients should take their BP medication when they are least likely to forget,” study leader Ricky Turgeon from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver said in a statement.

His team pooled data from five randomized trials that involved a total of 46,606 patients. Across the five trials, rates of major adverse heart problems and all-cause mortality were not affected by evening versus morning dosing, they found.

The same was true for the risks of fractures, glaucoma issues and cognitive events.  

Dr. Scott Garrison from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, whose team conducted two of the five trials involving roughly 4,000 patients – including one trial involving frail older patients – reported his team’s findings in a separate presentation at the meeting.

“We know that BP typically follows a circadian rhythm that peaks after waking and troughs during sleep,” he said in a statement. “Major cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke are associated more strongly with high BP at night,” which is why some guidelines have called for taking BP meds at bedtime.

But in his team’s two trials, he noted, “while evening dosing was safe, it conveyed no additional advantages.”

A robotic arm can be used to perform remote echocardiograms; recent recreational drug users admitted to cardiac ICUs have triple the risk of a repeat serious cardiac event within one year; a new heart attack test that takes only eight minutes can be performed in the emergency department; and fears that a mainstay procedure for treating atrial fibrillation works only because of a placebo effect are unfounded: a new trial (reported in JAMA) shows it provides a substantial benefit over sham procedures.

This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot.

Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com

Reuters Health Rounds is sent twice a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here.

Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you’re signed up for, click here.

Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement