Powerful Weight-Loss Drug Retatrutide May Also Ease Sleep Apnea During the Night

Eli Lilly's retatrutide, which has drawn attention as a highly potent weight-loss medicine, may also help people with sleep apnea sleep more soundly, according to recent studies.

Researchers recently published two trials examining how retatrutide affected obstructive sleep apnea. In both studies, the experimental drug cut symptoms significantly when compared with a placebo, suggesting that effective obesity treatments such as retatrutide and other GLP-1 drugs may also have a role in managing sleep apnea.

Beyond weight loss

Retatrutide belongs to a new class of obesity and diabetes medications that act on hunger-related hormones such as GLP-1. It is designed to mimic GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon.

Large randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind studies have so far indicated that retatrutide may be the most powerful obesity drug developed to date. Based on those results, regulators are widely expected to consider approval in the near future. Because obesity is also linked to health problems including obstructive sleep apnea, Eli Lilly tested whether retatrutide might offer added benefits there too.

The company ran two retatrutide trials focused on obstructive sleep apnea, both nested within larger phase III studies of the drug. One trial included people with type 2 diabetes and obesity who also had OSA, while the other enrolled people with OSA and obesity without diabetes. Together, the studies involved about 700 participants.

Sleep apnea is characterized by repeated pauses in breathing lasting 10 seconds or longer throughout the night, sometimes occurring 5 to 100 times an hour. Obstructive sleep apnea develops when airway muscles physically block breathing. Snoring is a common sign, but it does not always mean a person has sleep apnea.

Across both trials and at different doses, people taking retatrutide had fewer episodes of apnea, or temporary breathing pauses, and hypopneas, or shallow breathing, during sleep than those given a placebo. In one study, more than half of retatrutide users saw their OSA go into remission or become mild. At that point, many no longer needed a positive airway pressure machine, which remains the standard treatment for OSA, the researchers said.

The results from both trials were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Could it become a sleep apnea treatment?

Even with significant weight loss, some patients will still need additional treatment to control sleep apnea. The drug's benefits were smaller, though still statistically meaningful, in people who had both obesity and type 2 diabetes. Excess weight is not the only risk factor for OSA, so retatrutide is unlikely to help much for people with sleep apnea who are not overweight or obese, who make up roughly a quarter of cases.

Still, GLP-1-based medicines are already being used alongside other therapies for many patients with both conditions. Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, which combines GLP-1 and GIP, received FDA approval for OSA in late 2024. Other pill-based sleep apnea treatments are also under development.

Retatrutide is likely to attract major attention for its weight-loss effects, but it could also one day bring relief to many of the estimated 50 million Americans who live with obstructive sleep apnea.