Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.
On September 18, 2024, we reported on research presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2024, held in Madrid, Spain, from September 10-13, 2024.
The study
Data was presented from the first-in-human study of amycretin, a first-of-its-kind, protein-based unimolecular amylin and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist coagonist. The novel antiobesity medication is being explored as a once-daily oral alternative to subcutaneous injectable antiobesity medications in persons with overweight or obesity.
In the single-center, placebo-controlled, double-blinded study, participants were randomly assigned to receive once-daily oral amycretin (n=95) or placebo (n=29) for up to 12 weeks. The amycretin arm consisted of 3 dose parts: single-ascending dose (increasing from 1 mg to 25 mg), 10-day multiple-ascending doses (3 mg to 12 mg), and 12-week multiple-ascending doses (stepwise dose escalation, from 3 mg up to a final dose of 2x50 mg).
The findings
Participants who received amycretin 50 mg had a 10.4% reduction in body weight, on average, between baseline and week 12, while those who received amycretin 2x50 mg (the maximum dose tested) had a mean body weight reduction of 13.1%. In comparison, persons in the placebo group had a 1.1% reduction in body weight during the same period (P < .001 for both doses).
With regards to the study’s primary endpoint, treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs), researchers did not observe any significant safety issues related to amycretin. The majority of AEs reported were mild-to-moderate in severity and related to gastrointestinal discomfort (ie, nausea, vomiting) and decreased appetite.
Authors' comment
“The results underscore the promising potential of amycretin as an anti-obesity medication and may pave the way for a novel patient-centered weight-management option."
