Popular weight-loss drug Zepbound gets FDA approval to treat sleep apnea

Many people with apnea will have a new way to help them sleep more soundly. And this month, the Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Eli Lilly’s obesity drug Zepbound to explicitly include sleep apnea as well.

On Friday, the F.D.A Officially approved Zepbound as a treatment for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity. In two large-scale clinical trials, the drug succeeded in helping people lose weight and reduce their symptoms of apnea. Zepbound is now the first prescription drug ever approved to treat obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that affects about 12% of Americans.

Apnea It occurs when our bodies temporarily stop breathing during sleep, causing the brain to wake the person up enough to start breathing again, only for the cycle to begin again once the person returns to sleep. The more severe a person’s apnea, the more often episodes of stopping or falling breathing will occur at night (although snoring is not always associated with apnea, it is a sign of narrowed airways during sleep). Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is caused by physical obstruction of the airway muscles and is the most common form of apnea by far.

While there are many risk factors for sleep apnea, obesity is known to be a particularly major contributor. The active ingredient in Zepbound, tirzepatide, has proven highly effective in treating obesity, with subjects losing over 20% of their body weight in trials. So Eli Lilly wanted to test whether the drug could effectively treat apnea, too.

Defeat Both trialstirzepatide performed as well as expected in outperforming placebo. People lost between 18% and 20% of their body weight. On average, the drug also reduced the frequency of apnea attacks by up to two-thirds, with participants experiencing about 30 fewer attacks per hour. Up to 50% of people who took tirzepatide were free of any symptoms after one year.

“Today’s approval represents the first drug treatment option for some patients with obstructive sleep apnea,” said Sally Seymour, M.D., director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. statement Announcing FDA approval. “This is a huge step forward for patients with obstructive sleep apnea.”

There are actually other highly effective treatments for apnea, most notably continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines. So a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine will remain a gold standard option for many, especially for those with apnea who are not obese. But CPAP machines require daily use at night, which may be too cumbersome for some people to tolerate long-term. In contrast, the weekly injection required for Zibbond may be more convenient for some eligible patients. In clinical trials, people who took both Zepbound and CPAP saw better results than any other group – highlighting the potential benefits of combination therapy.

However, Zepbound and similar GLP-1 drugs aren’t completely hassle-free. Its most common side effects include vomiting, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms. These medications are also not cheap, with prices exceeding $1,000 per month. But expanded approval would make it easier for some people to secure insurance coverage for Zepbound, and simply having more interventions available for apnea is invaluable. As with obesity, this approval could open a new era for the treatment of sleep apnea.