New Weight-Loss Pill Shows 12% Body Weight Reduction in Clinical Trial

A new weight-loss pill is showing strong results in early testing. In a clinical trial, adults with obesity lost up to 12 percent of their body weight after taking the pill once a day for 36 weeks. The drug, called aleniglipron, belongs to the same family as popular injectable medicines such as Ozempic and Wegovy. But unlike those drugs, it does not require a needle. The results were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

Current GLP-1 drugs work well, but they come as injections. This means patients need refrigeration and must inject themselves regularly, which can be inconvenient. Aleniglipron is different because it is a small-molecule drug. This means it is made through chemistry, like aspirin, rather than being built from proteins. As a result, it can be taken as a simple pill, with or without food. It may also be cheaper and easier to produce in large amounts, according to Dr. Robert Kushner, a co-author of the study.

In the trial, researchers gave 230 adults with obesity or overweight one of three doses, or a placebo, for 36 weeks. People who took the highest dose, 120 milligrams, lost an average of 12.1 percent of their body weight. Those on lower doses lost slightly less, while the placebo group lost almost nothing. Side effects were usually mild, mostly involving the stomach, and became less common over time. Researchers now plan a larger phase III trial to confirm these results before the drug can be approved for wider use.