Effects of Tirzepatide in Type 2 Diabetes: Individual Variation and Relationship to Cardiometabolic Outcomes.

Background: Tirzepatide-a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist-exerts pleiotropic effects on cardiometabolic health.

Objectives: The authors sought to investigate the efficacy of tirzepatide in improving different cardiometabolic risk factors across individuals and subpopulations.

Methods: Using an independent, global data-sharing and analytics platform, we performed an individual participant data meta-analysis by pooling data from 7 Phase 3 randomized clinical trials that compared tirzepatide with placebo or standard antihyperglycemic agents in individuals with type 2 diabetes. The study outcomes were the presence of a range of cardiometabolic abnormalities, representing components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) (elevated waist circumference, triglycerides, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose, and decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol), as well as elevated body mass index and MetS (≥3 cardiometabolic abnormalities). Outcomes were modeled using mixed-effects models, with inverse probability weighting to account for study design differences.

Results: We included 7,805 participants with a weighted median age of 59 years (Q1-Q3: 51-66 years) and 43.2% women. Over a weighted median treatment duration of 41.0 weeks, tirzepatide reduced the odds of all cardiometabolic abnormalities, ranging from 34% reduction for the odds of decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR: 0.66 [95% CI: 0.52-0.84]) to 96% reduction in the odds of elevated body mass index (OR: 0.04 [95% CI:0.02-0.08]), and 72% reduction for the odds of MetS (OR: 0.28 [95% CI: 0.24-0.33]). Tirzepatide's superior efficacy in resolving MetS was consistent across demographic and clinical subpopulations, with higher efficacy in age <65 years vs ≥65 years, and in individuals without vs with baseline use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (P for interaction = 0.008 and 0.009, respectively).

Conclusions: This pooled analysis suggests that tirzepatide may improve cardiometabolic abnormalities and resolve MetS in individuals with type 2 diabetes.