The daily glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist orforglipron could help people maintain weight loss after stopping GLP-1 injectables, according to the team of researchers behind new trial data.
The large-scale randomised controlled trial, ATTAIN-MAINTAIN, was presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Istanbul and published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The researchers found that people using injectable GLP-1s maintained most of their weight loss long term if they switched to the daily weight-loss pill orforglipron (brand name Foundayo, Eli Lilly).
Orforglipron switching
They followed 376 US patients who had been on tirzepatide (brand name Mounjaro, Eli Lilly) or semaglutide (brand name Wegovy, Novo Nordisk) for 72 weeks, who then took orforglipron or a placebo for a year.
They found that participants who swapped from tirzepatide or semaglutide to the once-daily orforglipron pill retained 75-79% of their weight loss.
In comparison, people given the placebo retained between 38-49% of their weight loss.
Swapping to the tablets also meant participants maintained improvements in patients’ blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels, the researchers observed.
‘The results indicate that switching to orforglipron may be an effective approach for maintaining weight loss for those who do not continue injectable therapy,’ they concluded.
‘One of the biggest challenges in obesity care’
Louis J Aronne, founder and chair of the American Board of Obesity Medicine and Eli Lilly consultant, added: ‘Weight regain remains one of the biggest challenges in obesity care, and is often the result of treatment interruptions that cause biology to work against patients, undoing the progress they’ve made.’
Orforglipron works similarly to obesity jabs by mimicking the natural hormone GLP-1 that reduces appetite and makes people feel full for longer. It is currently only available in the US, where the price is cheaper than injectable GLP-1s at around $149 (£110) per month for the lowest dose, compared with over $1,000 (£740) a month for some GLP-1 injections.
A pill version of the injectable weight-loss drug Wegovy became available in the US on 5 January, with Novo Nordisk recently announcing that the pill is expected to launch outside the US during the second half of 2026 after US sales reached double what analysts’ predicted.
Obesity drugs have now replaced oncology as the highest value area in drug development, a report from accountancy firm Deloitte recently revealed.
This article was originally published by our sister publication The Pharmacist.