A major new clinical trial involving more than 1,600 people has found that a GLP-1 pill form of the drug orforglipron works about as well as injectable semaglutide for people with type 2 diabetes.
Following an experiment conducted over 72 weeks and across 136 sites in 10 countries,a team led by obesity-medicine specialist deborah Horn of the University of Texas reported that participants lost an average of 9.6 percent of their body weight on the highest dose of the drug.
That’s comparable to the roughly 10 to 15 percent loss in body mass commonly seen in people with diabetes taking injectable semaglutide over a similar period.
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“” the researchers write in their paper, “the findings indicate that orforglipron could address the unmet need for oral therapy by achieving outcomes similar to those of injectable GLP-1 receptor agonists, possibly shifting treatment paradigms.”
GLP-1 drugs exploit the body’s natural mechanisms for reducing appetite after a meal. When you eat, your gut releases a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which activates receptors in various organs. When these receptors are triggered, a few things happen: your appetite decreases, your pancreas increases insulin and reduces glucagon release, and digestion slows so blood sugar rises more gradually.
GLP-1 drugs are synthetic mimics of that hormone, triggering the same pathways in ways that can help people with diabetes regulate their blood sugar, and, more recently, assist people in losing weight.
For now, the drug can only be administered by injection. Its peptides break down too quickly in stomach acid, ruling out oral doses of the medication.
Orforglipron, by contrast, is not a peptide, but still activates the same receptor as GLP-1. It’s also absorbed in the digestive tract like a more conventional drug. So far, signs of its efficacy are promising: a previous clinical trial involving 3,127 people with obesity, but without diabetes, showed an average 12.4 percent loss in body weight.