Millions of diabetics could see life-changing results from an ‘incredible’ new drug, researchers suggested today.
Tirzepatide works by mimicking hormones that help both control blood sugar and suppress appetite, helping people shed pounds.
It was already shown to be more effective than other similar medicines, including ones dished out on the NHS.
But fresh data, set to be presented at a medical conference, will reveal that it also works up to 12 weeks quicker.
Scientists involved in the analysis said the once-a-week jab was producing results ‘beyond anything else we have available right now’.
Tirzepatide mimics hormones in the body which help people feel full and satisfied after a meal.
These are often at low levels in obese patients, who tend to make up the majority of Type 2 diabetics.
As well as helping people feel full, the drug helps bring diabetes under control by helping the body avoid sugar crashes, help removes excess sugar from the body and stops the liver from making and releasing too much sugar.
Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to blindness and leave patients needing their limbs amputated or in a coma.
Scientists have hailed ‘incredible’ weight loss and diabetes management results from a clinical trial of tirzepatide, sold under the brand name Mounjaro
As obesity rates have spiralled over the past few decades, so has type 2 diabetes.
Figures now suggest that roughly 5million Britons have the condition, as well as 29million people in the US.
Drugs now exist to fight the condition, but the new analysis suggests tirzepatide, sold under the brand name Mounjaro and made by US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, could offer better and faster improvements for sufferers.
The new data came from two trials, which compared a 5mg, 10mg or 15mg dose to two different existing medications.
Tirzepatide doses increased by 2.5 mg every four weeks until the required strength was reached and then maintained for the duration of the nearly year-long trials.
One trial involved almost 1,500 people with type 2 diabetes.
Participants in this trial were either randomly assigned to receive one of the three differing doses of tirzepatide once a week or a daily insulin injection.
The other trial compared the three tirzepatide doses to another weekly weight-loss and diabetes jab called semaglutide. It involved 1,800 participants.
Tirzepatide recipients reached a key blood sugar control milestone, which is having a haemoglobin A1c level of less than 7 per cent, on average four weeks faster than those on semaglutide.
It also outperformed the daily insulin jabs, with participants on tirzepatide recording a haemoglobin A1c level of less than 6.5 per cent 12 weeks sooner.
Similar findings were also recorded for weight loss in the semaglutide trial.
Read More: Scientists hail ‘incredible’ results of diabetes jab that lowers blood sugar