Drug developers are re-advancing amylin analogues for obesity, two decades since the FDA approved the first of these hormone mimetics for diabetes.

In March 2005, the FDA granted a first-in-class approval to Amylin Pharmaceuticals’ amylin analogue pramlintide (Symlin) for type 2 diabetes. Just one month later, US regulators also approved the first GLP-1 mimetic, Amylin and Eli Lilly’s exenatide (Byetta), for diabetes too. Both the amylin and GLP-1 hormone mimetics stabilized sugar levels, and showed signs of offering broad potential across metabolic diseases including obesity. But whereas Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 mimetic semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and Eli Lilly’s dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) have since taken the cardiometabolic world by storm, amylin was overlooked.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-025-00088-w

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