Tirzepatide Early Weight Responders Achieve Greater Long-Term Cardiometabolic Benefits with Similar Tolerability

Global obesity affects over 800 million people, leading to severe complications like cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Optimizing treatment outcomes often hinges on identifying early indicators of success. Tirzepatide, a dual GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonist, has demonstrated robust weight reduction and improvements in cardiometabolic risk parameters (CRPs) in the SURMOUNT trials. This post-hoc analysis aimed to determine if early weight response to tirzepatide could predict overall efficacy and tolerability, providing insights into personalized treatment strategies and patient management.

This was a post-hoc exploratory analysis of data from the phase 3, multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind SURMOUNT-1 (SM-1) and SURMOUNT-2 (SM-2) trials. The analysis included tirzepatide-treated participants with obesity or overweight from SM-1 (n=1775) and SM-2 (n=609), totaling N=2384. Participants were categorized as early responders (ERs; ≥5% weight reduction) or non-early responders (non-ERs; <5% weight reduction) at Week 8. Outcomes, including weight reduction, cardiometabolic risk parameters (CRPs), tolerability, and hypoglycemia, were assessed at Week 72 using logistic regression and mixed models for repeated measures.