Zepbound: Breakthrough Weight-Loss Drug Relieves Sleep Apnea in Two Clinical Trials

2024-04-17 23:16:00

WEDNESDAY, April 17, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Zepbound, one of the most popular weight-loss drugs now taken by millions of Americans, relieved sleep apnea in obese adults in two of the company’s trials, the company announced Wednesday. pharmaceutical Eli Lilly.

First approved to treat obesity by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last November, Zepbound’s power was significant: It reduced the severity of sleep apnea by nearly two-thirds in patients.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) “affects 80 million adults in the US, and more than 20 million live with moderate to severe OSA. But 85 percent of OSA cases go undiagnosed, and therefore, they are not treated,” Dr. Jeff Emmick, senior vice president of product development at Lilly, said in a company news release.

“Addressing this unmet need head-on is critical, and while there are pharmaceutical treatments for the excessive sleepiness associated with OSA, tirzepatide [Zepbound] “has the potential to be the first drug treatment for the underlying disease,” he added.

Importantly, the results have not yet been published in a medical journal.

In the two studies, researchers looked at whether Zepbound worked better than a placebo at reducing the number of times per hour, on average, a person partially or completely stopped breathing while sleeping.

In the first study, patients with sleep apnea did not use CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines, which blow air into the airways to prevent them from collapsing during sleep. Patients in the second study did use the machines.

After 52 weeks, Zepbound caused an average reduction of 27.4 events per hour in people not on PAP machines, compared with a reduction of 4.8 events per hour for people taking a placebo.

In people using PAP machines, Zepbound led to an average reduction of 30.4 events per hour, compared to an average reduction of 6 events per hour in the placebo group.

Dr. Susan Spratt, an endocrinologist and senior medical director of the Office of Population Health Management at Duke Health in North Carolina, said the findings show that obesity is “not a vanity problem.”

“It’s about treating an important health problem that reduces morbidity [enfermedad] and mortality,” he told NBC News.

He said the findings could also make insurance companies more willing to offer coverage for the weight-loss drug.

Just last month, Medicare said it would cover another popular weight-loss drug, Wegovy, for obese patients who also have heart disease.

Sleep apnea affects about 39 million American adults, according to the National Council on Aging. Obesity, which can narrow a person’s airways, can increase the chances of a sleep apnea diagnosis.

If left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure, and even death.

Lilly said Wednesday that it plans to share additional findings from the studies at the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting in June, and will also present the results to the FDA sometime this summer.

More information

Visit the National Institutes of Health’s website to learn more about sleep apnea.

SOURCE: Eli Lilly Co., press release, April 17, 2024; NBC News

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