Over the last year, the injectable diabetes medication Ozempic steamrolled through TikTok, talk shows and tabloids as people raved about using it off-label to lose weight. Then the hype intensified this fall around Wegovy, a similar medication approved for weight management.
Another diabetes drug, called Mounjaro, is now gaining attention, with many people using it off-label to lose weight. Some research has found that Mounjaro may be even more powerful than either Ozempic or Wegovy. A recent 72-week trial, funded by Eli Lilly, the company that manufactures Mounjaro, found that around half of participants who were both obese and had diabetes lost around 15 percent of their body weight while taking tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro. Another major study comparing these drugs found that taking tirzepatide led to sharper reductions in blood sugar levels and greater weight loss than the other drugs.
However, that study compared different doses of semaglutide and tirzepatide, making it tricky to determine how these medications stack up head-to-head, said Dr. Dean Schillinger, a professor of medicine and diabetes expert at the University of California, San Francisco. It was also sponsored by Eli Lilly.
Mounjaro is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat only Type 2 diabetes. “Mounjaro is not a weight loss drug,” the official website for the medication reads, under larger, bold purple letters proclaiming that people taking it have lost up to 25 pounds. But there is some speculation that the F.D.A. could authorize the medication for weight management soon; Eli Lilly announced in October that the F.D.A. had fast-tracked its process of examining and approving tirzepatide for adults who are obese or overweight.
Hispanics in the U.S. are 17% more likely to have diabetes 2 than-non-Latinos.
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