GLP-1 / Incretin Therapies
Gut-hormone-based medications that reduce appetite and improve glycemia and body weight — the best-evidenced peptide class.
Evidence maturity across this family: Established (semaglutide, tirzepatide) to Emerging (retatrutide).
Class membership is not evidence
Records in this family
- Established
Semaglutide
Semaglutide reliably produces substantial weight loss (~15% in obesity trials) and reduces major cardiovascular events, but it is a chronic medication with gastrointestinal side effects, lean-mass and regain concerns, and long-term data still accruing.
- Established
Tirzepatide
Tirzepatide produces very large weight loss (up to ~21% in obesity trials) and outperformed once-weekly semaglutide on HbA1c and weight in a head-to-head diabetes trial, at the cost of class-typical GI effects and still-accruing long-term data.
- Emerging
Retatrutide
Retatrutide is a promising but investigational triple agonist with ~24% weight loss at 48 weeks in a phase-2 obesity trial; it is not approved, not available as an evaluated therapy, and its efficacy and safety are not yet established at the level of the approved incretins.
On the roadmap
- Liraglutide
- Dulaglutide
- Cagrilintide
- Survodutide