New weight loss drug Retatrutide leads to dramatic results in trials

Health & Fitness
30 Sep 2026 • 2:34 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

New weight loss drug Retatrutide leads to dramatic results in trials

  • An experimental weight loss drug named retatrutide has helped obese patients living with type 2 diabetes shed up to a quarter of their body weight in an 80-week clinical trial.
  • Developed by Eli Lilly, retatrutide operates by mimicking three separate hormones to regulate appetite and blood sugar, delivering average weight reductions of up to 18.8 per cent.
  • Nearly three-quarters of participants treated with retatrutide achieved an HbA1c reading of 6.5 per cent or lower, bringing them below the standard NHS diagnostic threshold for diabetes.
  • The primary side effects reported were diarrhoea and nausea, and seven deaths that occurred during the trial were ruled unrelated to the treatment.
  • A separate trial showed that an amylin-replicating drug called petrelintide helped participants lose over 10 per cent of their body weight with potentially better tolerability than GLP-1 drugs.

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