Danish researchers believe that they have developed a new ‘diet injection’ which as well as being much more effective than current slimming pills on the market could also project against type II diabetes.
Patient were injected with liraglutide to combat diabetes but the results from the trials indicated that the drug makes patients twice as likely to lose weight as those who are taking orlistat or Xenical.
Published in the journal the Lancet the results showed that the drug curbed hunger pangs as well as reducing risk factors for diabetes. However, while Xenical is in pill form, making it convenient to take, liraglutide needs to be injected daily as in pill form it would be broken down by the gut. It is also an expensive drug, costing £500 for six months of treatment.
In the trial, lead by a paid consultant of the pharmaceutical firm manufacturing the drug Professor Arne Astrup, three groups of patients in 19 hospitals were put on a diet which reduced their calorie content by 500 calories a day and told to exercise. One group were given orlistat, one group given liraglutide, and one group given a placebo.
Professor Astrup said that the drug mimics the action of a hormone found in the gut, GLP-1, which is released into the body after someone has eaten. It then tells the body to produce more insulin and acts as a satiety hormone, telling the brain to stop eating.
Over 20 weeks, over 3/4s of those given the injections lost more than 5% of their body weight, weight loss experienced by 44% of those taking orlistat and 30% of those taking the placebo.
Further tests are planned as the trial ran for a relatively short period, and the researchers need to establish the longer term ratio between risks and benefit. Health charity Weight Concern have said that while the development of good weight loss drugs is important, emphasis still needs to be on supporting people in changing their lifestyle and diet. Dr. George Bray from Louisana State University, who wrote the accompanying editorial in the Lancet, said that it was not yet clear whether an injection would prove a “palatable” means of delivering weight loss medication but said he was optimistic that the potential of the new generation of weight loss medications would be fulfilled.