A daily pill with the same appetite-suppressing effects as popular weight-loss jabs helped people shed up to 13% of their body weight within three months.
Amycretin mimics the action of two hormones which play a key role in regulating feelings of hunger – amylin and glucagon-like peptide-1.
In a study, 95 people who were overweight or obese took the drug while 25 were given a placebo.
Those on the daily pill lost on average 10% of their body weight after 12 weeks, rising to 13% for those on the highest dose.
Researchers described the weight loss as “remarkable” and noted that it did not plateau after three months, suggesting further reductions would be possible over time.
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They added: “The results underscore the promising potential of amycretin as an anti-obesity medication.”
Professor Naveed Sattar, an expert in cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, who was not involved with the research, hailed the “exciting” results.
He said: “The more medicines coming forward to treat obesity, the better as this gives more chance to find safe and efficacious medicines, especially tablets that could be more easily available (and cheaper) for the many millions around the world struggling with obesity and its complications.
“This early phase research on a new oral combination is exciting given the speed of weight loss seen.
“However, far larger scale trials will be needed to test such medicines in due course, including its effect on disease outcomes.”
Study participants had a body mass index (BMI) of between 25 and 39.9 and did not have diabetes.
Some mild to moderate gastrointestinal side effects were seen, including nausea and vomiting.
The findings were presented by Dutch pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Madrid, Spain.