In a recent development, Tirzepatide marketed as Zepbound and Mounjaro, which is used for long-term weight control and treating type 2 diabetes, brings big benefits for people with excess weight who struggle with moderate to severe breathing problems during sleep (OSA), says drugmaker Eli Lilly.

This drug, which affects two types of proteins in the body, helped lower the seriousness of sleep problems measured by a special scale called the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). It worked even for people who didn’t use positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy during sleep.

For those using PAP therapy, AHI went down by 62.8% from the start of the study, while for those not using PAP therapy, it went down by 55.0%. In comparison, people taking a fake pill saw only a 6.4% and 5.0% drop, respectively.

These changes in sleep breathing might affect the heart and metabolism. Lilly mentioned in their press release that OSA can lead to serious problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, heart failure, an irregular heartbeat, and type 2 diabetes.

SURMOUNT-OSA looked at adults with moderate to severe sleep apnea over two studies lasting 52 weeks each. In one study, people weren’t using PAP therapy, while in the other, they were using and planning to keep using PAP therapy. People got Tirzepatide as a shot at either 10 or 15 mg, whichever they could handle best.

In the study without PAP therapy, tirzepatide helped reduce AHI by 27.4 events per hour, compared to 4.8 events per hour with the fake pill. In the study with PAP therapy, the numbers were 30.4 and 6.0 events per hour, respectively.

The treatment also helped people lose weight. In one study, people lost 18.1% of their starting weight, and in the other, they lost 20.1%. People taking the fake pill lost only 1.3% and 2.3%, respectively. Lilly pointed out that most of the people in the study were men, who usually don’t lose as much weight with this kind of medicine as women do.

The side effects were similar to what’s been seen in other studies of the medicine. The most common ones were stomach-related and mostly mild to moderate—they included diarrhoea, feeling sick, throwing up, and constipation.

These findings will be shared in a talk at the American Diabetes Association’s yearly meeting in June. The company plans to ask the US Food and Drug Administration and other global groups to look at them and decide if the medicine can be used for this purpose.