What is Retatrutide? The new Godzilla drug for weight loss

According to initial research, a new weight loss drug has been developed that appears to be more powerful than Ozempic. Called retatrutide, the drug works by suppressing appetite and speeding up metabolism so the body burns more fat. In one trial, participants lost up to a quarter of their body weight on average after nearly a year, leading people to dub retatrutide the Godzilla of weight-loss shots.

HOW DOES RETATRUTIDE WORK?

The reason retatrutide appears to outperform other similar drugs is that it targets three different receptors in the brain, rather than one or two. Semaglutide, more commonly known by the brand names Ozempic or Wegovy, mimics a hormone called GLP-1 that regulates appetite, making people feel full. A similar injection called tirzepatide, also known by its brand name Mounjaro, mimics GLP-1, as well as a second appetite-controlling hormone called GIP.

Retatrutide mimics both and also targets a third hormone, glucagon, which increases the rate of calorie burning by causing the body to burn more fat.

Retatrutide is basically Mounjaro but turbocharged. What glucagon does is that it increases energy expenditure, the amount of energy you burn, according to Professor Alexander Miras, an obesity expert at the University of Ulster. explained a the times. There are two mechanisms; decrease food intake and increase energy expenditure. So far, all medications have focused on reducing food intake.

The trial was presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Venice this week and involved 338 obese adults, half of whom were given a weekly injection of retatrutide and the other half a placebo. After 48 weeks, participants on retatrutide had lost an average of 24% of their body weight, compared to 2% in the placebo group. Conversely, in similar trials, Ozempic and Wegovy users lost 15% of their body weight over 68 weeks, and Mounjaro users lost 22.5% over 72 weeks.

It was Professor Julio Rosenstock who gave retatrutide its catchy, media-friendly moniker. The University of Texas professor, who conducted an independent trial of retatrutide in people with type 2 diabetes, said: We know that tirzepatide (Mounjaro) is the King Kong of GLP-1s. And when I look at retatrutide, I think there’s no doubt that Godzilla is smiling.

WHAT ARE THE SIDE EFFECTS OF RETATRUTIDE?

In addition to weight loss, the study showed that retatrutide also helped improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Four out of ten participants were able to come off their high blood pressure medication. When it came to side effects, like all previous GLP-1 drugs, it included nausea, diarrhea, and constipation.

It is not yet clear whether retatrutide will also cause other side effects seen with drugs like Ozempic. In rare cases, these injections can cause kidney failure, pancreatitis, and intestinal obstruction. Last summer, it was reported that the European drug regulator was reviewing weight loss drugs, including Wegovy and Saxenda on a possible connection with thoughts of suicide and self-harm between users. While, this year a number of cases have arisen of women taking the medication who become pregnant, despite being on birth control or having previous fertility problems.

On an emotional level, a scientist who helped pioneer GLP-1 research has warned that it numbs people’s ability to feel pleasure and life. so miserably boring. It’s also worth noting that because of the way GLP-1 drugs produce weight loss by suppressing your appetite when you stop taking it, the effects are often reversed.

On a more positive note, recent research on semaglutide found that it might help reduce the risk of heart attacks. In a new study, also presented at ECO this week, researchers from University College London found that participants taking semaglutide had a 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular disease, regardless of their initial weight or the amount of weight they had lost.

Some people also believe that the drug has a future as an anti-addiction drug thanks to reports that semaglutide suppresses the desire to do activities such as drinking alcohol and going shopping.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Eli Lilly, the US drug firm developing retatrutida, is conducting phase three trials to find out how much more weight users can lose, as well as assess side effects and any more serious problems. These results will be published in 2026 and then, if approved by regulators, the drug could be available to buy or be prescribed on the NHS within three years.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly, as well as pharmaceutical companies Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, are vying to be the first to market with the oral version of these weight loss drugs as doctors believe it will be more pleasant for people than injections. Not surprisingly, that’s because there is a lot of money to be made. Last year, sales of anti-obesity and diabetes drugs it added up to nearly 25,000 million and has led Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk to become Europe’s most valuable company with a market value of more than $500 billion. That’s more than the entire GDP of Denmark, where the company is based. Novo Nordisk has made so much profit that it has increased the value of the Danish krone and reduced mortgage rates in the country

Although these pills and the upcoming retatrutide injections are still in development, some experts are already concerned about the impact the drugs will have on people who take them for cosmetic weight loss instead of the original use of GLP- 1 to treat diabetes. “I am concerned that these drugs are widely used just to promote weight loss and how they contribute to our general diet culture, our cultural obsession with thinness,” said Dr. Scott Hagan, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington who has studied obesity. the News from New York.

THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF RETRUTIDI AND OZEMPIC

As the weight-loss effects of semaglutide and similar GLP-1 drugs have become known to the public, they have come to dominate the cultural conversation and it became so popular that there is currently onenational shortage; even people with diabetes struggle to get their hands on it. It is reported to be widely used in Hollywood, New York and Westminster, as well as in the fashion industry, ia a dangerous black market has emerged to feed the demand. Medspas and telemedicine start-ups are also offers off-brand versions of the drugscausing concern about the blurring of the lines between a still emerging field of medicine and cosmetic treatments.

The increasing popularity of medicines has exposed how, despite the positive movement of the body and the thin and thick hourglass figure that celebrities like the Kardashians championed last decade, our culture is like entrenched by diet and obsessed with skin as it has always been. As a society, we are still caught in the clutches of the grassphobia this is and has always been so pervasive. As a result, despite the potential danger to health and well-being of drugs, many people believe that the risk is worth the social benefit.

If being beautiful is a status marker for a woman, losing weight can seem like a matter of social life and death, according to psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber. he told Dazed last year. It can feel like the most important thing in the world and can diminish a normal sense of risk in wanting to try anything. The agony and misery of body shame leads to despair and impulsiveness.

It’s too early to tell if retatrutide will be as successful as its makers predict: Dr. Ania Jastreboff, an author of the study and director of the Yale Obesity Research Center, called the results surprising, which had not been seen before, and said a gathering of scientists spontaneously applauded when they showed the first results of the trial. In the meantime, however, it pays to be cautious about any miracle drug, especially when it comes to the weight loss industry, which has a long history of drugs that turn out to be too good to be true.