Posts Tagged ‘innovation’

FDA Approves Resmetirom: First Ever for MASH with Fibrosis

March 16, 2024 — Firsts are worth celebrating. In this case, the cause for celebration is especially great. MASH or metabolic steatohepatitis is a disease that is growing dramatically more common and more harmful to the health of the population. Late this week, FDA approved resmetirom to be the first ever treatment for MASH with fibrosis. Note that the […]

Progress Reported in MASH with Survodutide

February 27, 2024 — Yet another GLP-1 agonist in development for obesity – survodutide – showed promising results yesterday from a phase 2 clinical trial in MASH. In case you missed the notice, MASH is the new acronym for what we used to label as NASH. We also note that MASLD has replaced NAFLD in the nomenclature alphabet soup […]

Lancet: Obesity Drugs Won’t Save Us from Cheeseburgers

January 10, 2024 — Some things never change. Half a century ago, editors of the Lancet proclaimed that “most obesity could, with care, be prevented.” Drugs have “limited usefulness” for treating obesity, they explained, and so, “we need to be more vigilant about preventing obesity throughout childhood.” After 50 years of relying on this advice, obesity prevalence has tripled. […]

Dreaming of Long-Term Success in Overcoming Obesity

December 29, 2023 — Right now, the public and policy makers are grappling with innovations in obesity that we already have. But scientists are peering over the horizon. They are dreaming – asking important questions about long-term success in overcoming obesity. Stat News describes this as a “quest to eradicate obesity” – a frame for this work that misses […]

The Big Shift in Lifestyle Programs for Obesity

December 15, 2023 — It’s long been overdue. For as long as we can remember, one presumption has been dominant. The real cure for obesity is (supposed to be) a change in lifestyle. It is the “foundation of obesity treatment” says just about everyone, even today. But the sand underneath that foundation is shifting. So the time has come […]

Tirzepatide Approved for Obesity: Will Competition Help?

November 9, 2023 — In an era of tremendous change for obesity care, this is certainly a huge milestone. FDA approved tirzepatide for obesity treatment yesterday and put Lilly in the position to offer serious competition to Novo Nordisk. But the question that matters most to us is simple. How will this competition help people seeking to cope with […]

Ten Sparks to Start Your Thinking on ObesityWeek 2023

October 12, 2023 — We’re packing for Dallas and looking forward to soaking up as much innovation, science, and policy as we can when all the world’s top experts gather to share their best thinking at ObesityWeek 2023. There’s a lot to absorb in just four days, so advance planning is the key. Here are ten sparks from the […]

From Lukewarm to Two Billion Dollars for Bimagrumab

July 15, 2023 — Four years ago, bimagrumab was a castoff from Novartis. That company had originally developed this monoclonal antibody for treating a rare muscle disease. But it failed spectacularly with disappointing results from a phase 2b study in 2016. That was a big disappointment, so it’s little wonder that Novartis walked away. Three years later, a glimmer […]

NICE Says Nope to Tirzepatide

June 29, 2023 — After four exhilarating days of new possibilities for overcoming diabetes and obesity at ADA2023, we had to come back down to earth. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK stepped up to this task right away. On Tuesday, NICE said nope to recommending tirzepatide use for type 2 diabetes in the […]

ADA2023: An Amazing 3-in-1 Obesity Medicine

June 27, 2023 — The last of four big days at ADA2023 brought us astonishing results from three studies of a new obesity medicine, retatrutide. This is the first 3-in-1 metabolic receptor agonist to advance this far in clinical trials as a medicine for obesity or diabetes. Researchers presented phase 2 results for obesity, diabetes, and NAFLD – three […]