Eli Lilly’s Weight Loss Drug Helps People Lose Up To 52 Pounds Is FDA Approved

(CTN News) – A new weight loss drug from Eli Lilly, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday after clinical trials showed it could help people lose up to 52 pounds in 16 months, according to a report.

There is no doubt that Zepbound is going to make a big impact on the field of powerful new drugs, which already includes Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro.

As per the FDA’s approval, the drug can be prescribed to adults suffering from obesity or who are overweight with at least one weight-related condition.

Eli Lilly’s said in a release that Zepbound should be available in the U.S. by the end of the year. There will be a list price for a month’s supply of this product of approximately $1,060.

In light of the fact that many insurance companies are reluctant to cover weight loss medications, and Medicare, by law, does not cover weight loss medications, the new drug may be out of reach for many people.

Currently, the cost of healthcare is too high for the general public, according to Dr. Nishant Shah, a preventative cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. To provide healthcare services to our patients at an affordable price is our goal.”

As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, 4 in 10 adults in the country are obese.

Some analysts have predicted that the drug will become the best-selling drug in history, even though it has a steep price tag.

The drug Eli Lilly’s Zepbound is a member of a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite by mimicking its effects on this hormone. As well as imitating a second hormone, Zepbound is also said to be capable of improving how sugar and fat are broken down by the body, along with reducing appetite.

As with Eli Lilly’s popular diabetes medication Mounjaro, Zepbound is made with the same active ingredient – tirzepatide – as Mounjaro.

The results of Zepbound’s phase 3 clinical trial demonstrated that, on average, individuals lost 22.5% of their body weight, which is equal to 52 pounds, which is significantly better than anything else that is currently available to help us lose weight. There was at least one weight-related condition present in at least one of the study participants who had obesity or were overweight.

As Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist and owner of a weight loss clinic in Cary, North Carolina, said, “This is the most effective form of pharmaceutical obesity treatment that has ever been available.”.

In addition to that, he added that Eli Lilly’s weight loss seen from the medication was very similar to the weight loss seen by bariatric surgery.

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