EASD: Tirzepatide Scores a Win for Kids with Type 2 Diabetes
This week has been a flood of news from the EASD meeting in Vienna. Yesterday, the big news was an impressive win for kids 10-17 with type 2 diabetes in a study of tirzepatide. Researchers presented the SURPASS-PEDS trial and simultaneously published it in Lancet.
At the end of the 30-week trial, tirzepatide in two different doses produced a 2.2% reduction in A1c. Those improvements were still seen at 52 weeks. Furthermore, tirzepatide yielded important reductions in BMI. At a 5 mg dose it reduced BMI by 7%. At the higher 10 mg dose the reduction in BMI was 11%.
Tamara Hannon, a professor of pediatrics and director of clinical diabetes at the Indiana University School of Medicine, was lead investigator for this study. She explains the importance of these findings:
“Youth living with type 2 diabetes often face a more aggressive disease course. And in many instances, first-line treatments like metformin and basal insulin fail to control their A1C adequately. The SURPASS-PEDS results show that tirzepatide delivered significant and clinically meaningful improvements in blood sugar, BMI and fasting serum glucose in pediatric patients. These results offer a promising opportunity to help shift the long-term health trajectory for young people living with this complex condition.”
Beyond Glucose Control
This study is an important first simply because no other drug has yet shown that it can both produce improvements in blood sugar and durable improvements in BMI. Aaron Kelly, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota, told us:
“This is fantastic, very impressive to see this reduction in BMI after only 30 weeks. It makes me wonder – how much of that A1c improvement was driven by reduction in adiposity? We’re now treating much more than blood sugar, that’s for sure.”
This is progress. The growing population of youth with type 2 diabetes have had few option for controlling it until now. Lilly says it has submitted this data for an expanded indication. This is an option that many young persons need.
Click here for the study in Lancet, here and here for further reporting on it.
Children in the Park, painting by Maurice Prendergast / WikiArt
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September 19, 2025
