A new group of international studies has provided encouraging news for millions of people living with type 2 diabetes.
Researchers have found that a once-weekly treatment combining two medicines, cagrilintide and semaglutide, may help lower blood sugar levels more effectively than some existing treatments.
The findings were published online on June 7 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology and The Lancet and were presented at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association held in New Orleans from June 5 to 8.
Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. It develops when the body becomes resistant to insulin or cannot produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels under control.
Over time, high blood sugar can damage blood vessels and nerves, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, vision problems, and other serious health complications. Because of these risks, doctors encourage people with diabetes to maintain healthy blood sugar levels through diet, exercise, medication, and regular medical care.
In recent years, medicines known as GLP-1 receptor agonists have attracted attention because they can lower blood sugar and help people lose weight. Semaglutide is one of the best-known drugs in this group.
It is already widely used for both diabetes management and weight reduction. Researchers have been interested in whether combining semaglutide with another medicine called cagrilintide could produce even better results.
Cagrilintide works differently from semaglutide. It mimics a hormone called amylin, which is naturally released by the pancreas after eating. Amylin helps people feel full, slows the movement of food through the stomach, and helps control blood sugar levels.
Scientists believed that combining the actions of amylin and GLP-1 might provide stronger benefits than either treatment alone.
One of the new studies was led by Dr. Vanita Aroda of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The researchers enrolled adults with type 2 diabetes whose blood sugar remained poorly controlled despite efforts with diet and exercise.
Participants received either high-dose cagrilintide plus semaglutide, lower-dose treatment, or placebo injections for 40 weeks.
At the end of the study, people receiving the higher-dose combination experienced a reduction in HbA1c of 1.8 percentage points. HbA1c is a blood test that reflects average blood sugar levels over several months and is one of the most important measures used to monitor diabetes.
Participants receiving the lower dose saw a reduction of 1.5 percentage points, while those receiving placebo experienced almost no meaningful improvement.
A second and much larger study involved 2,713 adults with type 2 diabetes who were also overweight or obese.
The participants were already taking metformin, one of the most commonly prescribed diabetes medicines, with or without another class of drugs called SGLT2 inhibitors. Researchers compared the combined treatment with semaglutide alone, cagrilintide alone, and placebo.
The results showed that the combination therapy lowered HbA1c more than semaglutide by itself. Although the difference may appear small, even modest improvements in blood sugar control can significantly reduce the long-term risk of diabetes complications.
A third study focused on people who required basal insulin to manage their diabetes. These patients are often among the most challenging to treat because their blood sugar remains difficult to control despite insulin therapy. In this group, researchers found that both doses of the combination treatment produced substantially larger reductions in HbA1c compared with placebo.
The findings suggest that combining cagrilintide and semaglutide may provide doctors with another option for patients who struggle to reach recommended blood sugar targets.
According to Dr. Julio Rosenstock from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, the results support a potential new treatment tool capable of helping patients achieve HbA1c levels well below 7 percent.
The research is particularly important because many people with type 2 diabetes also struggle with excess body weight. Obesity increases insulin resistance and makes diabetes more difficult to manage. Treatments that improve both blood sugar control and weight management could offer significant benefits for overall health.
Despite the promising findings, several questions remain. The studies mainly focused on blood sugar outcomes over periods of 40 to 68 weeks. Longer-term research will be needed to determine how well the benefits last and whether the treatment can reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other diabetes-related complications.
It is also important to note that several study authors reported financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies, including Novo Nordisk, which is developing cagrilintide and funded the research. Such disclosures are common in large clinical trials and help readers evaluate potential conflicts of interest.
Overall, the findings represent an important advance in diabetes treatment. The combination of cagrilintide and semaglutide appears to offer stronger blood sugar control than some existing therapies, particularly for people whose diabetes remains difficult to manage.
If future studies continue to confirm these benefits, the treatment could become a valuable addition to the growing range of tools available to help people live healthier lives with type 2 diabetes.
From a scientific perspective, the results are encouraging because they were observed across three separate clinical trials involving different groups of patients. The consistency of the findings strengthens confidence in the treatment’s effectiveness. However, the studies primarily measured improvements in blood sugar rather than long-term health outcomes.
Future research will need to confirm whether these improvements translate into fewer complications and longer lives. For now, the evidence suggests that combining cagrilintide and semaglutide could become one of the most promising new treatment approaches for type 2 diabetes in recent years.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about diabetes and vitamin B12, and the right diet for people with type 2 diabetes.
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