Half the people who start a GLP-1 for diabetes are off it inside a year

Pooling 28 studies covering 267,542 patients, Amgen reported that 69% of people with type 2 diabetes were still on their GLP-1 at 6 months and 49% at a year. Stopping is not a neutral event, the company's chief medical officer argued at a diabetes meeting in New Orleans: what follows is the loss of the blood sugar control the trials showed.

Convenience is the pitch behind that framing. MariTide, an antibody-peptide conjugate Amgen is testing in obesity and in type 2 diabetes, is designed for monthly dosing and is being studied at intervals stretching to every two months or every quarter, against the weekly injections that define the category now. Its phase 3 Maritime programme runs 72 weeks and enrols people with obesity with and without diabetes.

Worth asking who did the counting. Every figure here comes from the company building the alternative, presented at a conference rather than published, and MariTide brought no new data to that meeting at all. The molecule is investigational, and a convenience argument is not yet an outcome.

Whether less frequent dosing actually keeps people on treatment is the open question, and only the phase 3 readout answers it. Where any of this fits for a particular person belongs with a qualified clinician who knows their health history.

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Retatrutide is investigational and is not FDA-approved. Other medicines referenced here are covered as third-party news for educational awareness only. Catalyst does not present this information as medical advice, treatment guidance, or a claim of safety, efficacy, or approval.