Popular weight loss drug can help treat sleep apnoea in people with obesity, research reveals

The severity of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in people with obesity could be significantly reduced if they start taking Tirzepatide – a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes and weight loss.

Made by Eli Lilly and Company, the weight loss jab could become the first pharmaceutical treatment for OSA – a condition where the walls of the throat relax and narrow, or close, during sleep.

Dr Kunal Gulati, the executive director for diabetes and obesity medical affairs at Lilly Northern Europe, said: “It’s estimated that up to three million people in the UK may have OSA but have not yet been diagnosed.

“Tirzepatide has the potential to be the first pharmaceutical treatment for OSA, which could address the unmet need for people living with this condition.”

Disrupted sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness can be triggered by OSA. In addition, people with OSA are at higher risk of severe heart complications and stroke.

Some people with OSA need to use a continuous positive airway pressure (Cpap) machine while they sleep to ensure a regular flow of air.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of researchers including scientists at Lilly, report how they conducted two phase three randomised control trials in people with obesity and OSA.

According to Lilly, one trial involved 234 people who were not using a Cpap machine, and the other involved 235 individuals who were.

In each trial, people were split into equal size groups and given an injection containing either tirzepatide or a placebo for 52 weeks.

The team looked at the average number of instances of reduced breathing (hypopneas) and stops in breathing (apneas) in an hour of sleep.

At the start of the first trial, participants experienced 51.5 such events per hour on average. However, those given tirzepatide experienced on average 25.3 fewer such events per hour at 52 weeks, while those given a placebo had an average reduction of 5.3 events per hour.

In the second trial, the average reductions in events per hour were 29.3 for tirzepatide and 5.5 for the placebo from a starting figure of 49.5 events per hour on average.

The team say the most common side-effect of tirzepatide was mild to moderate stomach issues.

In both trials, participants given tirzepatide also experienced significant weight loss, had improvements in systolic blood pressure, and reported improved sleep-related outcomes, among other changes.

A spokesperson for Lilly said approximately 70 per cent of people diagnosed with OSA also lived with obesity.

They said: “In addition to reduction in body weight, we believe that reduction in tongue, airway and visceral ectopic fat deposits may have an additional beneficial effect in people living with OSA and obesity.”

Dr Sanjay Patel, from the University of Pittsburgh, said an evaluation of further metrics would be necessary “to fully understand the magnitude of clinical benefit and allow comparisons with existing therapies for obstructive sleep apnoea”.

However, Prof Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, said the results were really exciting and could revolutionise sleep apnoea care in people living with obesity.

He also noted weight loss would offer people many other benefits that treatments such as Cpap did not provide.

Professor Sattar said: “Considerable evidence has pointed to obesity being a strong risk factor for sleep apnoea.

“To now see substantial improvements in sleep-related patient reported outcomes following large-scale weight loss with an anti-obesity medicine is excellent and will change practice.”

He added: “Such evidence further underlines how important tacking obesity is to both treat and prevent multiple chronic conditions that cause considerable suffering for many people in society.”