Tirzepatide: NICE recommends another GLP-1 agonist for type 2 diabetes

Tirzepatide, branded as Mounjaro, has been recommended for treating poorly controlled type 2 diabetes in adults in new draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).1

Around 180 000 people—for whom triple therapy with metformin and two other oral anti-diabetic drugs is ineffective, not tolerated, or contraindicated—could benefit from the new treatment option, which involves a weekly injection that can be self-administered, NICE said.

Tirzepatide will be used as an alternative to similar glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists already recommended for use in the NHS, such as liraglutide (Saxenda) and semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy, or Rybelsus)—although the latter has yet to be rolled out on the NHS because of supply problems.

GLP-1 receptor agonists are a class …