On The Pen GLP-1 News

What if the next big breakthrough in obesity medicine isn't a GLP-1 at all?Novo Nordisk is developing an experimental oral weight-loss medication called LX9851, an ACSL5 inhibitor that targets an entirely different biological pathway than Ozempic, Wegovy, or Zepbound. Novo believes this once-daily pill could potentially deliver 10–15% weight loss without traditional dose titration.But there's a catch. The drug is still in Phase 1 trials, and those weight-loss projections haven't been demonstrated in humans.On this week's episode of On The Pen: The Weekly Dose, we're diving into Novo Nordisk's expanding obesity pipeline, the fascinating science behind the ACSL5 enzyme and the intestinal "ileal brake," and why this non-GLP-1 approach could eventually offer new options for patients who struggle with existing treatments.We'll also examine the preclinical research, its potential alongside semaglutide, and why 2030 or later may be the earliest realistic timeline for this experimental therapy.Could the future of obesity medicine be bigger than GLP-1s?💬 Would you consider a weight-loss medication that doesn't directly activate GLP-1 receptors? Let me know in the comments!🔗 All On The Pen resources, sponsors, and community links: https://linktr.ee/manonthemounjaro🌐 Latest obesity medicine news: https://onthepen.com🎙️ On The Pen Live: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 AM Central.Subscribe for independent, patient-centered reporting on obesity medicine, GLP-1s, type 2 diabetes, clinical trials, and emerging metabolic therapies.Disclaimer: LX9851 is investigational and not FDA-approved. Projected weight loss and development timelines are not established clinical outcomes. This content is for educational purposes and is not medical advice.

Retatrutide’s New Phase 3 Data, CagriSema in Menopause, and the Growing GLP‑1 Access CrisisHost Dave Knapp recaps major obesity-drug updates, focusing on Eli Lilly’s triple agonist retatrutide and Novo Nordisk’s CagriSema. He reviews Triumph 1 obesity results (up to 25% average weight loss at 80 weeks) and highlights New England Journal of Medicine Phase 3 data showing large reductions in obstructive sleep apnea events in people with and without type 2 diabetes, while noting uncertainty about weight-loss versus nervous-system mechanisms. He also covers TRANSCEND CKD Phase 2B kidney findings: no significant improvement in measured GFR, but favorable secondary markers including reduced urine albumin in a subset. Novo’s post hoc Redefine 1 analyses show strong CagriSema weight loss across pre-, peri-, and post-menopausal women. He discusses Zealand/Roche’s petrelintide Phase 2 results emphasizing low GI discontinuation and argues tolerability matters as much as potency. The episode closes on worsening affordability and coverage, including employers dropping benefits and Pennsylvania Medicaid GLP-1 spending rising to an estimated $1.3B, warning restricted access fuels the gray market.00:00 Big Week in Obesity Drugs00:53 Show Intro and Disclaimers02:03 Sponsor Spotlight VoaFit03:06 Retatrutide Weight Loss Context05:27 Sleep Apnea Phase 3 Results10:23 Beyond Weight Loss Benefits12:14 Kidney Study Nuance16:53 CagriSema Menopause Data19:20 Petrelintide Amylin Update23:33 Top Host Voting Pitch ( otplinks.com )25:29 Access and Coverage Crisis27:42 Medicaid Costs and Gray Market31:21 Wrap Up and Schedule

Specific lots of compounded tirzepatide have been recalled over sterility concerns, another pharmacy recently recalled compounded semaglutide after particulate matter was identified, patients have reported visible strands and fibers in other compounded GLP-1 vials, and now FDA inspectors have documented black mold, insects, hidden paperwork, and questionable testing practices at facilities manufacturing GLP-1 active ingredients.So, should people taking compounded GLP-1s panic? No.Millions of people have used compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide, and these incidents still appear relatively uncommon compared with the enormous scale of use. But patients deserve transparency about who made their medication, where the active ingredient came from, what testing was performed, and what happens when something goes wrong.In this episode of On The Pen, we break down:- The Apothecary Pharma compounded tirzepatide recall- The affected lots and sterility concerns- Apollo Care and the compounded semaglutide “floaters”- The Hyalo/NewLife vials with reported visible strands or particulate- FDA findings involving black mold, insects, records, and GLP-1 API suppliers in China- Why these stories should not become Pharma vs. compounding- Why pharmaceutical manufacturers deserve scrutiny too- CagriSema, amylin, and why I’m watching January 2027- Lilly’s $1.1 billion METiS TechBio deal- Why the future of obesity and diabetes treatment needs to move beyond GLP-1s and weekly shots foreverAffected lot numbers and supporting links:👉 https://otplinks.comThe goal here is not fear. It is giving patients enough information to understand what they are actually injecting and enough context to put these stories into perspective.Subscribe to On The Pen for breaking GLP-1, obesity, diabetes, and metabolic health news.🔗 All my links: https://linktr.ee/manonthemounjaro#GLP1 #Tirzepatide #Semaglutide #Mounjaro #Zepbound #Ozempic #Wegovy #CompoundedGLP1 #CagriSema #WeightLossNews

Eli Lilly’s fight over retatrutide may be about much more than one obesity drug.I’ve been covering retatrutide since early 2023, and since late 2024 I’ve been closely following the legal fight over whether reta should be treated as a biologic. From the beginning, I’ve argued that this case could have consequences far beyond retatrutide itself.In this episode, I break down the growing unauthorized retatrutide market, the serious adverse events and death reports now entering the conversation, Lilly’s repeated legal actions against sellers, the restricted Seventh Circuit filings, and new context I’ve heard from someone connected to senior HHS policy discussions.The biggest question is no longer simply what happens to retatrutide. It’s whether this case could help shape how future peptide medicines are classified, regulated, and protected.I’m continuing to track the Seventh Circuit docket and work on the restricted filings. If those documents become available or I can independently confirm what is in them, subscribers at obesity.news and OnThePen.com will hear about it first.This episode is brought to you by VoaFit and Trilogiii Daily Essentials. Check the links in the show notes, and use code OTP10 for Trilogiii.Visit Trilogiii: https://triii.life/tiers/daily-essentials?utm_source=onthepen&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=dave_knappVisit Voafit: https://www.voafit.com/otp

Zepbound isn’t just changing people’s weight. GLP-1 medications are beginning to change America itself.Restaurants are rethinking what they serve. Grocery baskets are changing. Food companies are paying attention to protein and portion size. Employers and insurers are wrestling with the enormous cost of covering obesity treatment. And pharmaceutical companies are spending billions trying to build the drugs that come after Zepbound.This week on On The Pen, The Weekly Dose, we’re connecting those dots.We get into the next generation of obesity medicines, including retatrutide, eloralintide, amylin combinations and oral GLP-1s, plus the growing race to preserve muscle while producing even greater weight loss.But there is another side to this story.As the science gets better, access may actually be getting worse. Coverage restrictions are forcing patients off medications that work, employers are reconsidering GLP-1 benefits, and we’re approaching a strange moment where medicine may finally have extraordinarily effective treatments for obesity while millions of people still can’t afford them.And then there’s McDonald’s.When one of the largest restaurant companies in the world starts thinking differently about what consumers want in the GLP-1 era, this isn’t just a pharmaceutical story anymore.It’s a cultural one.🎙️ On The Pen, The Weekly DoseRecorded from the Bask Health StudiosHttps://www.bask.healthThis Episode is Brought to you by:Voafit and the MyLevel AppHttps://www.Voafit.com/otpFollow On The Pen and find everything I’m working on here:linktr.ee/manonthemounjaro⁠In this episode: Retatrutide • Zepbound • Mounjaro • Ozempic • Wegovy • Eloralintide • Oral GLP-1s • Amylin • Muscle preservation • GLP-1 insurance coverage • The changing American food industryThis content is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

This week on On The Pen, The Weekly Dose, we break down one of the biggest weeks in obesity medicine coming out of EASD 2026.Eli Lilly says Zepbound may still outperform Wegovy 7.2 mg, even after Novo Nordisk tripled the familiar maintenance dose, but the details are more complicated than the headline. We dig into the difference between the treatment-regimen and efficacy estimands, and why this was not a true head-to-head trial.We also cover Novo Nordisk’s $2.6 billion bet on a potential once-weekly oral GLP-1/GIP, new Foundayo data against high-dose oral semaglutide, Viatris and Mylan’s renewed patent fight over the future of generic Wegovy, and the full Phase 3 retatrutide publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.Plus, after weeks of concern over GLP-1 medications and NAION-related vision loss, we look at one practical thing patients may be able to do right now to better understand their own baseline risk.This episode is about more than who “wins” between Lilly and Novo. It is about what the data actually says, where the next generation of obesity treatment is headed, and what all of this means for patients trying to make informed decisions with their doctors.Covered in this episode: Zepbound vs. Wegovy 7.2 mg, retatrutide TRIUMPH-1 Phase 3 data, Foundayo/orforglipron, oral semaglutide, once-weekly oral GLP-1s, generic Wegovy patent litigation, NAION, GLP-1 vision risk, EASD 2026, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Viatris and Mylan.Subscribe for breaking GLP-1, obesity, diabetes and metabolic-health news, explained from the patient perspective.Get Exclusive OTP Savings and Resrouces:Https://www.otplinks.comGet Breaking Obesity Medicine News:HTTPS://www.onthepen.com

This week on On The Pen, The Weekly Dose Podcast, retatrutide heads into a major federal court fight as the Department of Justice gives FDA fresh legal ammunition just days before oral argument.At the same time, FDA is escalating its scrutiny of mass GLP-1 compounding, with a warning letter to Empower Pharmacy that could have major implications for semaglutide, tirzepatide, telehealth prescribing, and patient access.We also break down Viking Therapeutics’ new VK2735 maintenance data, including early weight-loss numbers that are starting to draw retatrutide comparisons and the possibility of every-other-week or even monthly maintenance dosing.Plus, Roche’s enicepatide, formerly CT-388, just posted a 2.65 percentage-point A1C reduction and 15.5% weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes and obesity, raising new questions about how competitive the next generation of GLP-1/GIP drugs may become.This episode is about more than one drug. It is about where obesity medicine is heading, who gets access, how regulators are drawing the lines, and why the next few years may look very different from the market we know today.Https://www.onthepen.comHttps://www.otplinks.com

Lilly just gave us a glimpse of what could come after today’s GLP-1s, and it may not be about simply pushing patients to stronger drugs and higher doses.This week on On The Pen: The Weekly Dose, we break down Lilly’s surprising early data combining just 5 mg of tirzepatide with 3 mg of eloralintide, producing roughly 17% weight loss in only 16 weeks. Could combinations like this eventually approach retatrutide-level efficacy with better tolerability? And when retatrutide reaches the real world, how many patients will actually need or tolerate the higher doses responsible for its biggest clinical-trial numbers?We’re also digging into the bigger stories shaping the future of obesity medicine, including new research suggesting semaglutide may influence aging beyond calorie restriction in mice, the emerging race to preserve lean mass during GLP-1 weight loss, apitegromab’s eye-popping price, Lilly’s legal battle over retatrutide’s classification, the underground market already selling unapproved Reta, and the latest development in Lilly’s lawsuit against Mochi.The science is getting better incredibly quickly. The bigger question may be whether we can deliver enough efficacy, tolerability and muscle preservation at a price patients can actually access.👍 Like, comment and subscribe if you want patient-centered GLP-1 news without the pharmaceutical press-release filter. If you listen to the podcast on Apple or Spotify, leaving a rating and review is one of the best ways to help more people find On The Pen.🔗 Everything On The Pen: linktr.ee/manonthemounjaro⁠On The Pen: Empowering you to have better conversations with your doctor.#GLP1 #Zepbound #Mounjaro #Retatrutide #Tirzepatide #Eloralintide #WeightLoss #ObesityMedicine #Ozempic #Wegovy

Is obesity still a disease worthy of treatment when the patient is six years old?This week, Novo Nordisk released Phase 3 STEP Young data in children ages 6 to 11 with obesity. After 68 weeks, 40.4% of children treated with semaglutide moved below the obesity threshold, compared with 0% on placebo. More than 85% of the children entered the trial with class II or class III severe obesity, and both groups received lifestyle intervention.That raises a harder question than whether people are comfortable with kids taking GLP-1s: compared with what? A nearly 90% chance that obesity present at age 3 persists into the teen years? An approximately 80% chance that a teen with obesity carries it into adulthood? Another decade of stigma, bullying, and metabolic disease while we keep telling families to try harder?I’m unapologetically supportive of studying and treating severe childhood obesity. That does not mean ignoring long-term questions around growth, puberty, nutrition, lean mass, or what happens when treatment stops. It means recognizing that withholding treatment is also a decision with consequences.We also break down the new Structure Therapeutics data, including aleniglipron, an oral small-molecule GLP-1 that produced up to 16.2% mean weight loss at 72 weeks, and ACCG-2671, an experimental oral amylin/calcitonin agonist that produced 3.3% mean weight loss after a single dose, with some important tolerability caveats.Plus, we look at a preliminary semaglutide signal involving asthma and COPD, and one of the strangest Ozempic access stories of the week.Recorded from the Bask Health Studios.This episode is sponsored by VoaFit. Learn more about VoaFit here:https://voafit.com/otpThis episode was filmed in the Bask Health Studios, visit:https://bask.healthFollow On The Pen everywhere plus get special discounts:https://otplinks.comRead more at:https://obesity.news

This week on On The Pen, the GLP-1 story is moving in two very different directions.The Fifth Circuit handed FDA major wins in the fight over semaglutide and tirzepatide shortages, FDA updated its consumer guidance around compounded GLP-1 medications and multi-dose vials, and employers continue questioning whether they can afford obesity-drug coverage.At the same time, the medical case for these medications keeps getting stronger.We break down Mounjaro’s new cardiovascular indication and what preventing heart attacks and strokes could mean for the true long-term cost of GLP-1 treatment. We also look at 600,000 Medicare beneficiaries already enrolling in the $50 GLP-1 Bridge program, California’s effort to tackle affordability, the rapidly expanding oral GLP-1 market, and new real-world data on patients staying at lower doses of semaglutide and tirzepatide.The science is expanding. Access is contracting.And that may be the biggest challenge facing the next phase of the GLP-1 revolution.In this episode:• What the Fifth Circuit compounding decisions actually mean• FDA’s updated language around compounded GLP-1 vials• The 28-day multi-dose vial controversy• Mounjaro’s new cardiovascular indication• Why GLP-1s may reduce long-term healthcare costs• Employers dropping obesity-drug coverage• 600,000 people joining the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge• California’s push for lower GLP-1 prices• The oral GLP-1 race• New data on lower-dose semaglutide and tirzepatideFollow everything On The Pen:This episode is sponsored by VoaFit.https://www.voafit.com/otpThis content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always discuss medication and treatment decisions with a qualified healthcare professional.