A once-daily tablet for obesity could broaden access to weight-loss medications for many people who have previously struggled to get them, experts have said. It comes after a new study found the pill can lead to "significant" reductions in body weight.

Nearly one in five people taking orforglipron can expect to shed 20% of their body weight after using the drug for a year and a half, according to fresh research. The new pill is a GLP-1 agonist, a class of medication which helps reduce blood sugar levels, slows food digestion and can suppress appetite.

The weight loss observed amongst people taking the tablet is not as dramatic as those amongst patients using Mounjaro, but experts believe the tablet will be more accessible and convenient compared with weight loss injections.

Mounjaro and the new tablet are both manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. The company has said it anticipates substantial demand when the new pill is launched.

A preview of the results was published by the company in August and the complete paper detailing the findings has now been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and presented to the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, in Vienna, Austria.

The study evaluated 3,127 patients, who were divided into groups taking different strength pills of orforglipron, whilst others took a placebo, also known as a dummy drug, for 72 weeks. Every participant suffered from obesity, meaning they had a body mass index (BMI) reading of 30 or above, though none had diabetes.

Volunteers from the US, China, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Slovakia and Taiwan participated in the research.

Scientists headed by Dr Sean Wharton from McMaster University in Canada discovered that after 72 weeks, individuals taking the smallest dose of orforglipron - 6mg daily tablets - shed an average of 7.5% of their body weight.

Those consuming the largest dose of 36mg dropped an average of 11.2% of their body weight.

Amongst volunteers taking the maximum doses, 54.6% experienced a decrease of 10% or more of body weight, 36.0% saw a reduction of 15% or more, and 18.4% achieved a drop of 20% or more.

Scientists reported that other health markers also enhanced amongst individuals using the medication, including improved blood pressure, reduced waist measurements and lower bad cholesterol readings.

They noted that the most frequent side effects were digestive, "which were mild to moderate".

"In adults with obesity, 72-week treatment with orforglipron led to significantly greater reductions in body weight than placebo," the researchers concluded.

"The adverse-event profile was consistent with that of other GLP-1 receptor agonists."

Dr Wharton commented: "This could mean an expansion of obesity interventions to groups who are currently excluded due to the cost of and lack of access to injectable medications."

Slimming injections have been praised as revolutionary by health experts. However, injections require extra effort from already strained health services, so tablet forms of medication, which are anticipated to be cheaper and simpler to use, could provide a new ray of hope for the millions of individuals seeking to shed weight.

New one-a-day weight-loss pill could see people lose 20% of body weight in 18 months - Daily Star