While injected GLP-1 drugs are extremely effective in stimulating weight loss, they are also equipped with some disadvantages. Side effects of the digestive tract and muscle mass loss may occur. Drugs are also costly, amounting to 1000 USD per month or more in the USA before insurance. Pharmaceutical companies are interested in developing obesity tablets due to their relatively budget-friendly production cost compared to injections and the fact that some patients prefer to take a pill.
“Clinical need is still unmistakable and that’s where Eolo wants to help,” says María Pía Garat, general director of the company.
Eolo did not decide to make a pill with weight loss. Scientists from the company originally tried to develop a drug to inflammation, especially one that occurs in obesity and type 2 diabetes. But when they began to test an experimental medicine at mice, it not only improved inflammation, but also led to a decrease in body weight when they were on a high -fat diet. They conducted experiments up to nine months and found that the mice eventually fell to their initial weight, even when they eat the same high -fat diet.
Sana also retained lean muscle mass in mice. MRI scans show that Sana treated mice had a larger percentage of lean body weight compared to control, despite significant fat loss.
“Earlier we had stimulants to try to increase calorie production,” says Hans Schmidt, head of bariatric surgery and co -director of the Center for Magure and Metabolic Health at the Hackensack University Medical Center, which was not involved in the study.
One of them was a combination of Fenflramine-FENTERMY drugs, known as a phen-part, which was sold in the 1990s for loss of weight, but was removed from the market of causing heart damage. “People are working on general metabolism. They make you shaken, make you energized. It seems that it works especially at the cellular level on fat cells,” he says.
Of course, the EOLO test was very tiny, and the drug will have to be tested with more people to better understand its effects. The company plans to test phase II this year, which will cover about 100 participants with obesity and follow them for 12 weeks. They hope to carry out this process in the United States. Garat believes that Eolo can be finally used as an independent approach or in combination with GLP-1 drugs to get more weight loss.
“At the moment we bring a backhoe to the construction site when we need a lot more tools. We need more such mechanisms that operate on paths other than appetite,” says Angela Fitch, former president of the Association of Otyłowy Medicine, and co -founder and medical director of Fedwell, a primary care company specializing in the care of obesity. Fitch is not involved in Eolo.
The current GLP-1 can reach up to 20 percent weight loss, and although this may be enough for some patients, others may still require weight loss to achieve a well weight. “New drugs,” he says, “give the opportunity to influence even more.”