Articles
Articles
Research notes on the medicines we benchmark: trial results, mechanisms, regulatory timing and what the data does and does not show. Every number comes from a named trial.
Two numbers from one trial: why obesity drugs report different weight-loss figures
On treatment or everyone randomised? The same dose of the same drug can show a gap of three points depending on the question being asked. How to read both, and why the gap itself tells you something.
4 min readBeyond the scale: what the outcome trials show for the heart, kidneys and heart failure
SELECT, FLOW, SUMMIT, SOUL, SURPASS-CVOT and ACHIEVE-4: where the hard-outcome evidence stands, which drugs have it, and why the newest drugs with the biggest weight loss still have none.
4 min readThe side-effect toll: who stops treatment, and why it matters more than nausea
Nausea is common across every obesity drug. Dropouts for side effects range from 1% to 25%, and they do not follow nausea rates. Four patterns from the trial data.
3 min readAfter the first two pills: the next wave of oral obesity drugs
Aleniglipron, elecoglipron, oral VK2735, CT-996 and more. What the second wave of obesity pills has shown so far, and the three things that will separate them.
4 min readDo GLP-1 drugs slow ageing? What the evidence shows so far
Old mice that lived 12% longer, molecular clocks running two to three years slower in people, and a federally funded trial about to start in healthy adults in their sixties. The case that GLP-1 drugs act on ageing itself, and why it is not settled.
7 min readWegovy pill vs Foundayo: efficacy against convenience in the first oral GLP-1s
Two daily GLP-1 tablets are now approved for obesity. One matches the injection on weight loss; the other removes every dosing constraint. The data on the trade-off.
6 min readRetatrutide: what a record 28.3% weight loss does and does not show
Eli Lilly's triple agonist produced the largest weight loss of any major obesity trial. The efficacy is clear; the tolerability, the heart data and the timeline need more care.
6 min readAmylin: the second hormone behind the next wave of obesity drugs
After GLP-1, most of the large obesity developers have an amylin programme. What the hormone does, how the leading assets compare and where the evidence is still thin.
7 min read