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Mounjaro manufacturer Lilly has said retatrutide, a triple hormone receptor agonist product currently in development, helped patients achieve “powerful weight loss” in a Phase 3 clinical trial.

In a statement last Thursday (May 21), the company said 45 per cent of participants in its Triumph-1 trial achieved weight loss of at least 30 percent, which it described as “a level long associated with bariatric surgery”.

Once-weekly doses of 4mg, 9mg and 12mg respectively led to an average weight loss of 19 per cent, 26 per cent and 28 per cent over the course of the 80-week trial.

Current market leader Mounjaro is billed as helping patients lose an average of 22.5 per cent in body weight at the highest maintenance dose of 15mg.

Lilly said retatrutide, which could launch in the USA in 2027, also showed “significant improvements from baseline” across cardiovascular risk factors such as waist circumference, HDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure.

The most commonly reported adverse events were nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and upper respiratory tract infection, with rates of discontinuation due to side effects observed as 4.1 per cent, 6.9 per cent and 11.3 per cent at the 4mg, 9mg and 12mg doses respectively.

More results from the company’s retatrutide trials are expected to be shared later this year, including findings in patients with obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes and those living with established cardiovascular disease.

Lilly’s Kenneth Custer commented: “Triumph-1 highlights the importance of options and the potential for retatrutide to help people across various stages of their obesity journey.

“From the 4mg dose, reaching nearly 20 per cent weight loss with one escalation step, to the 12mg dose that delivered a level of weight loss long associated with bariatric surgery, retatrutide offers the potential for a patient-centric approach to obesity.”

Researcher Ania Jastreboff, director of Yale University’s Obesity Research Centre, said: “It was impressive to see that every dose of retatrutide resulted in clinically meaningful weight reduction for nearly all participants, and people with severe obesity on the highest dose lost on average 30 per cent of their body weight over two years.

“Importantly, treatment with retatrutide not only resulted in robust weight reduction, but also in clear improvements in assessed cardiometabolic health measures.”

She described the novel drug as a potential “highly impactful tool” to treat patients living with obesity and “transform their health trajectory”.