A new trial has found that a weight loss drug taken monthly helps people shed 20 percent of their body weight.
Amid the ever-growing popularity of weight loss medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, a new drug, MariTide, is being tested that could be just as competitive in the market.
MariTide, from the drug maker Amgen, differs from the alternatives as it has a monoclonal antibody, which allows the medication to stay in the body longer, NBC News health and medical reporter Berkeley Lovelace Jr. explained in an article published Monday.
The article dives into a new trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers analyzed nearly 600 participants, who were broken up into those with both Type 2 diabetes and obesity and those with obesity.
The trial found that those with obesity alone who were treated with MariTide lost up to about 20 percent of their body weight, on average, after 52 weeks. Those with obesity alone who didn’t take the MariTide only lost up to 2.6 percent of their body weight, on average.
Participants who had diabetes and obesity lost up to 17 percent of their body weight, on average, while taking MariTide, according to researchers. Those with both diseases who weren’t on MariTide lost up to 1.4 percent of their body weight, on average.
Ozempic and similar drugs can help patients lose 15 to 20 percent of their body weight, according to Columbia University’s Department of Surgery. Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications are taken weekly, but MariTide only needs to be taken monthly, making it more convenient for patients.
“It’s always just easier for patients to only have to take something once per month,” Dr. Michelle Ponder, an assistant professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina, told Lovelace.
Ponder, who wasn’t a part of the MariTide trial, added: “A lot of patients we see in endocrinology are diabetes patients, and so they’d be taking multiple shots of insulin per day. And so, every last shot matters, even if it’s three less shots per month.”
MariTide researchers said gastrointestinal issues were “common” with the drug, but Lovelace pointed out that the drug’s side effects were similar to those of other GLP-1 medications.
