The once-weekly treatment delivered up to 9.2% mean weight loss and improved blood sugar control in adults with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Zealand Pharma said its experimental weight-loss drug petrelintide met its main goal in a mid-stage study of adults with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes, adding fresh momentum to a programme the Danish company is now advancing with Roche into late-stage testing. The phase 2b ZUPREME-2 trial found that once-weekly petrelintide produced statistically significant reductions in body weight after 28 weeks, while also improving blood sugar control.
According to a company statement and a report by BioPharma International, the study enrolled 220 adults in the US who were already taking metformin, with some also on a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor. Participants were assigned to three doses of petrelintide or placebo, alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity. At baseline, the average body mass index was 36.3 and the average HbA1c, a measure of long-term blood glucose, was 8.0%.
Zealand said the treatment led to mean weight loss of 7.4% to 9.2% under one analysis, compared with 2.0% for placebo. The company also reported that HbA1c fell by as much as 0.65% with petrelintide, while it rose by 0.23% in the placebo group. Gastrointestinal side effects were the most common adverse events, but they were mostly mild and tended to appear during dose escalation. Discontinuation rates because of these events were low and similar between groups.
David Kendall, chief medical officer at Zealand Pharma, said the findings support petrelintide’s potential as a stand-alone treatment for people with obesity and type 2 diabetes, and pointed to what the company described as a favourable tolerability profile. The data arrive after Zealand and Roche announced in April that they were preparing a phase 3 programme for chronic weight management, with plans to enrol about 7,000 participants and begin the trial launch in the second half of 2026. If the larger studies confirm the phase 2 results, petrelintide could emerge as another contender in a crowded field of obesity medicines, where durability, tolerability and effects on blood sugar are becoming as important as weight loss alone.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
