On November 8th, the Food and Drug Administration approved a request by Eli Lilly, an American pharmaceutical company, to begin marketing its tirzepatide medication, which is branded as Mounjaro for diabetes, under a new brand for weight loss too. Mounjaro have already been used by some patients for weight loss; the freshly minted FDA approval will allow the drugmaker to begin selling and Zepbound — for weight loss.
The drugmaker said that Zepbound will be available for patients in the U.S. by the end of the year.
According to CBS News, the company said Wednesday in a news release that the medication, administered with an injection pen, will be sold at a lower list price than its semaglutide competitors from Novo Nordisk, which are branded as Wegovy for weight loss and Ozempic for diabetes.
“New treatment options bring hope to the many people with obesity who struggle with this disease and are seeking better options for weight management,” Joe Nadglowski, CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, said in Eli Lilly’s release. The group receives funding from Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.
Eli Lilly and Company’s Zepbound (tirzepatide) injection is the first and only obesity treatment of its kind that activates both GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) and GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) hormone receptors. Zepbound is indicated for adults with obesity (with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or greater), or those who are overweight (with a BMI of 27 kg/m2 or greater) and also have weight-related medical problems such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obstructive sleep apnea or cardiovascular disease, to lose weight and keep it off.
It should be used with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity. Zepbound should not be used with other tirzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines, and it has not been studied in patients with a history of pancreatitis, or with severe gastrointestinal disease, including severe gastroparesis.
The approval was based on results from the phase 3 SURMOUNT-1 and SURMOUNT-2 trials. In SURMOUNT-1, a study in 2,539 adults with obesity, or excess weight and weight-related medical problems, not including diabetes, people taking Zepbound as an adjunct to diet and exercise experienced substantial weight loss compared with placebo at 72 weeks. At the highest dose (15 mg), people taking Zepbound lost on average 48 lb., while at the lowest dose (5 mg), people lost on average 34 lb. (compared to 7 lb. on placebo).
Additionally, one in three patients taking Zepbound at the highest dose lost over 58 lb. (25% of body weight), compared to 1.5% on placebo, according to data not controlled for type 1 error. The average starting weight was 231 lb.
While not approved to treat these conditions, in a clinical trial, people who dieted, exercised, and took Zepbound to treat obesity or overweight with weight-related medical problems observed changes in cholesterol and reduced blood pressure and waist size.
“Unfortunately, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, obesity is often seen as a lifestyle choice – something that people should manage themselves,” said Dr. Leonard Glass, senior vice president of global medical affairs at Lilly Diabetes and Obesity. “For decades, diet and exercise have been a go-to, but it’s not uncommon for a person to have tried 20-30 times to lose weight with this approach. Research now shows that the body may respond to a calorie-deficit diet by increasing hunger and reducing feelings of fullness, making weight loss more difficult. Lilly aims to eliminate misperceptions about this disease and transform how it can be managed.”
Zepbound use may be associated with gastrointestinal adverse reactions, sometimes severe. The most commonly reported adverse events (observed in ≥ 5% of clinical trial participants) were nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, abdominal pain, dyspepsia, injection-site reactions, fatigue, hypersensitivity reactions, eructation, hair loss and gastroesophageal reflux disease.1 In studies, most nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting occurred when people increased their dose – but the effects generally decreased over time. In studies, gastrointestinal side effects were more common in people taking Zepbound than people taking placebo, and people taking Zepbound were more likely than those on placebo to stop treatment because of these side effects. The label for Zepbound includes a Boxed Warning regarding thyroid C-cell tumors. Zepbound is contraindicated in patients with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma, in patients with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2, and in patients with known serious hypersensitivity to tirzepatide or any of the excipients in Zepbound. See Important Safety Information below and full Prescribing Information and Medication Guide.
Zepbound is expected to be available in the United States by the end of the year in six doses (2.5 mg, 5 mg, 7.5 mg, 10 mg, 12.5 mg, 15 mg) at a list price of $1,059.87, which is approximately 20% lower than semaglutide 2.4 mg injection for weight loss. Tirzepatide is also under regulatory review for weight management in Europe, China, the United Kingdom, and several additional markets.
- People who are commercially insured with coverage for Zepbound may be eligible to pay as low as $25 for a 1-month or 3-month prescription.
- People who are commercially insured without coverage for Zepbound may be eligible to pay as low as $550 for a 1-month prescription of Zepbound, approximately 50% lower than the list price.
People may begin using the savings card program in the days following product availability at U.S. pharmacies. To learn more about these programs or to sign up to receive the latest news, please visit www.Zepbound.lilly.com.