NEW DELHI: A new experimental diabetes jab tested at centres in India, the United States and Mexico helped people with type 2 diabetes lose up to 15% of their body weight while significantly improving blood sugar control, according to Phase-3 trial results published in The Lancet.The study evaluated retatrutide, a once-weekly injectable medicine that targets three hormone receptors involved in blood sugar regulation, appetite control and energy balance. Researchers enrolled 537 adults, including 296 women, with inadequately controlled type 2 diabetes across 48 centres and followed them for 40 weeks.At the highest dose, retatrutide reduced HbA1c, a key measure of long-term blood sugar control, by 1.94 percentage points and body weight by 15.3%, compared with reductions of 0.81 percentage points and 2.6%, respectively, in the placebo group. Up to 89% of participants achieved the recommended HbA1c target of below 7%.Dr V Mohan, Chairman of Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai, described retatrutide as the first triple-action therapy targeting GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors. “The weight loss seen with retatrutide is among the highest reported with any drug and approaches results typically achieved with bariatric surgery. The HbA1c reduction is also unprecedented,” he said, calling it one of the most promising therapies currently in development. However, Prof Ravinder Goswami, senior endocrinologist at AIIMS Delhi, urged caution in interpreting the findings. He said the rapid emergence of anti-obesity and diabetes drugs has made it difficult to determine which treatments are truly superior. Claims of superiority over existing drugs such as tirzepatide, he said, cannot be established without direct head-to-head clinical trials and real-world evidence. He also warned that very rapid weight loss and blood sugar reduction may carry risks, including gallstones, electrolyte imbalance and muscle loss.Beyond its effects on blood sugar and weight, the drug also improved several cardiovascular risk factors, including triglycerides, non-HDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure, suggesting benefits that may extend beyond diabetes control alone.The most common side effects were nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting, which were generally mild to moderate and occurred mainly during dose escalation. No severe hypoglycaemia was reported during the trial.Researchers concluded that retatrutide could emerge as an important future treatment option for type 2 diabetes, adding to a growing class of medicines that target both diabetes and obesity, two of the world’s fastest-growing public health challenges.
