Two new drugs for treating obesity are on course to become available in the next few years — and they offer advantages beyond those of the highly effective blockbuster drugs already on the market. The first, called orforglipron, is easier to use and to produce, and it will probably be cheaper than existing treatments. The second, retatrutide, has an unprecedented level of efficacy, and could raise the bar for pharmacological obesity treatment.
“They’re both breakthroughs,” says endocrinologist Daniel Drucker at the University of Toronto in Canada, who was not involved in the recent research on either drug.
The drugs are part of a class called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists. Similar drugs were first created to combat diabetes, with weight loss as a welcome side benefit. In the past five years or so, two GLP-1 receptor agonists that lead to substantial weight loss have come on the market, amid much fanfare. One of the drugs, tirzepatide (marketed as Mounjaro), has been approved by US regulators only for treating diabetes. The other approved drug, semaglutide, is sold under two brand names: Ozempic, a diabetes treatment, and Wegovy, an obesity treatment. Both tirzepatide and semaglutide have helped people with obesity to gain the potentially life-saving benefits of weight loss, such as lowered blood sugar and reduced hypertension.
