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Sleep apnea often gets passed off as mere snoring, but it's a much bigger deal. Throughout the night, breathing keeps pausing, and each pause chips away at sleep quality. Left untreated, repeated breathing disruptions and drops in blood oxygen during sleep can do far more than leave you groggy in the morning—they can take a serious toll on long-term health.

Excess body weight is a major contributor to this condition. In a recent clinical trial, researchers investigated whether a weight-loss drug called retatrutide could help improve the condition.

To find out how well retatrutide works against sleep apnea, researchers launched two large phase 3 clinical trials, TRIUMPH-1-OSA in patients without type 2 diabetes and TRIUMPH-2-OSA in those with type 2 diabetes. The trials compared the once-weekly injections of three different doses with a placebo in adults who were overweight or living with obesity and had moderate-to-severe sleep apnea.

After 80 weeks, all three doses of retatrutide reduced breathing interruptions more than placebo, including in participants with diabetes. Among participants receiving higher doses of retatrutide, 39%–52% saw their sleep apnea improve to either no disease or mild disease without excessive daytime sleepiness, compared to only about 13% of those receiving a placebo. At the two higher doses, the drug also cut breathing disruptions during sleep by an average of 25 pauses per hour, roughly a 40% reduction, compared to 10 fewer pauses in the placebo group.

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