KEY DETAILS
A Phase 4 trial is recruiting to test whether strength training prevents muscle loss during tirzepatide treatment.
Amgen opened a Phase 3 trial of monthly maritide in adults with obesity who do not have type 2 diabetes.
Two survodutide trials opened, one on cardiovascular safety and one in MASH liver disease. The drug is not approved.
Other new studies are testing semaglutide for asthma control and tirzepatide for methamphetamine use disorder.
A Phase 4 trial is now recruiting to test whether resistance training prevents muscle loss in people taking tirzepatide. Everyone on these medications is told to lift weights to protect muscle, and that advice has been running well ahead of the evidence, so a trial designed to measure it is overdue.
Muscle loss is the most common worry raised by people who are losing weight quickly, and it is the reason some people feel weak enough to stop treatment. A Phase 4 trial is one that runs after a drug is already approved, which means the people in it are taking tirzepatide as prescribed rather than as an experiment, so the result should apply to people in ordinary treatment rather than to a narrow trial population.
Amgen also opened a large Phase 3 trial of maridebart cafraglutide in adults with obesity who do not have type 2 diabetes. The drug, known as maritide, is dosed monthly rather than weekly, and it is not available to patients in any form yet.
Two trials opened for survodutide, one testing its effect on cardiovascular safety and one testing it in MASH liver disease in people with obesity. Survodutide is still investigational, with results on the cardiovascular study expected next year, so nothing about it changes a prescription now.
Two smaller studies are worth noting for how far the questions have moved from weight. One is testing whether semaglutide improves asthma control in people with obesity, and another will test whether tirzepatide helps in methamphetamine use disorder, though that one does not start enrolling until October.
The resistance training study is the one to watch, because it is the only one of these that tests advice people are already being given rather than a drug nobody can get. If muscle loss is what worries you, the useful conversation with your prescriber is about protein intake and strength work now, rather than waiting for the trial to report.
Sources
ClinicalTrials.gov: Resistance training to prevent muscle loss during treatment with tirzepatide
ClinicalTrials.gov: Evaluation of maridebart cafraglutide in adults without type 2 diabetes
ClinicalTrials.gov: LIVERAGE: survodutide in MASH
ClinicalTrials.gov: Semaglutide in adult obesity-related symptomatic asthma
Originally published on GLP1Laws.
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