Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro have seen spectacular success.
But theres still room for improvement.
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are developing and testing a new crop of experimental weight-loss drugs.
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Its a really exciting time for people living with metabolic disease and for scientists and healthcare providers.
When a person eats, these GLP-1 based drugs signal to the body to create more insulin.
That lowers blood sugar and delays digestion and appetite, making people feel full longer.
Pfizer isalso testinga once-daily oral medication called lotiglipron in phase 2 trials.
Lotiglipron and danuglipron are considered small molecule drugs, while semaglutide and tirzepatide are called peptide-based drugs.
Eli Lilly isalso pursingan oral GLP-1 agonist called orforglipron.
For people with diabetes and obesity, this is all very good news.
The more options the better for people living with diabetes.
Theres not enough clinical trial data on these experimental drugs to know how they compare with oral semaglutide.
But its likely that they will, at least, be cheaper.
Thats because biological proteins are more expensive to create and challenging to scale up production.
As with the other drugs in this class, tirzepatide works by mimicking GLP-1.
But it also acts on a different hormone, called gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP).
In a mouse study, retatrutide promoted more body weight loss than tirzepatide in obese mice.
Studies are underway to better understand how the drugs in this class stack up.
For instance, Lilly is studyingtirzepatide head-to-head against semaglutidefor obesity.
Novo Nordisk, meanwhile, is testing semaglutide in dosages up to three times the currently approved highest dose.
And once newer drugs are on the market, how will the newest generation of medications fit together?
We just dont know that yet, Drucker said.
If we can overcome those side effects, there are no limits, Lau told Verywell.
Some experimental obesity and diabetes treatments are breaking out of the GLP-1 class.
The eat less, move more narrative doesnt quite work anymore.
A healthcare provider can help you understand whether GLP-1 agonists or other treatments are right for you.
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