Tirzepatide for Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Patients do not always have the same priorities as their clinicians. In addition to better health outcomes and few adverse effects, patients may have preferences for minimizing multiple insulin injections, avoiding hypoglycemia, maximizing their ability to lose weight or reducing risk of weight gain, and avoiding high medication costs. In this issue of JAMA, Dahl et al present the findings of the SURPASS-5 clinical trial that compared 3 doses of the dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist tirzepatide vs placebo in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes within an insulin glargine titration protocol. The study included 475 patients receiving insulin glargine (with or without metformin) who were not at the target hemoglobin A-|C (HbA1c) level of 7.5% to 10%. The mean (SD) age of study participants was 61 (10) years, suggesting that the study population included few people with type 2 diabetes younger than 40 years, which is an important and growing demographic group. Despite 45 participating sites in 8 countries, only 1.3% of study participants self-identified as Black or African American individuals.