Exciting results for the glucagon-like peptide 1 agonist named Exenatide were presented at Obesity 2010 this week. In studies, this diabetes treatment caused a weight loss in obese non-diabetic patients of an average of 2.4kgs over 16 weeks whereas those taking the placebo gained weight.
The drug is used for patients with diabetes and associated with weight loss in this regard but nothing was known of the effects of the drug on patients without diabetes who simply want to lose weight.
A team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical centre carried out a trial in which 41 women without diabetes took part. These women were obese and weighed on average 88.9kg with a mean BMI of 33.
The results showed that 31% of the women experienced greater than 5% weight loss and this was experienced early on, roughly 3.3 kg during the first 4 weeks of study - an average weight loss of 7.3kg. 34% of those deemed modest responders, lost an average of 1.9kg and 35% did not respond to this treatment but did gain 1.7kg.
Further studies will be carried out and so far the future looks bright for Exenatide, another diabetes treatment to be considered for the treatment of obesity. We look forward to an update this coming year on the progress of Liraglutide in trials. The type-2 diabetes treatment that we reported on earlier this year and is also a GLP 1 analogue, has also presented positive results in the way of weight loss.