An experimental weight loss pill developed by Novo Nordisk has been found highly promising in fighting obesity than any other drugs currently available for the same purpose.

The Danish drug makers, while presenting the findings of an early-stage study of the weight loss pillat the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting in Madrid, said that taking two pills of amycretin daily can help achieve about 13.1 percent of weight loss in just three months. 

Similarly, taking a daily dose of 50 mg of amycretin was associated with a 10.4 percent reduction in weight, Reuters reported.

During the study, the non-diabetic participants, who were overweight and obese, took 3 mg to 50 mg of amycretin.

Interestingly, amycretin was found helping lose fat faster than the company's current anti-obesity injection Wegovy. 

While amycretin works by stimulating two different hormones mainly glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) andamylin, the drug wegovy stimulates only GLP-1, explaining the mechanism behind the two drugs, the company said. GLP-1 is a gut hormone and amylin is a pancreas hormone which targets hunger.

Like other weight loss medications, amycretin had almost similar side-effects.

Amycretin, which brought about 242 cases of mild- to- moderate side-effects in participants,was otherwise found to be safe and tolerable. During the trial conducted in 60 participants, "one serious but non-fatal adverse event" has also been reported.

"What we see in the study period is a 13.1% weight loss with a side effect profile comparable to what we normally see with incretin-based therapy, so primarily gastrointestinal side effects," Martin Holst Lange, Novo's head of development, said.

In March, an early-stage study conducted on Japanese men, showed that amycretin was more effective in helping to shed excessive weight than wegovy and ozempic.

The company is also working on a new drug known as CagriSema. CagriSema, which targets amylin, is made by blending two drugs and helps in about 25 percent of weight loss.

"The data that I've seen so far suggests that amycretin has at least the same weight-loss potential as CagriSema," Lange told Reuters.

Injectable drugs like wegovy and Zepbound manufactured by Eli Lilly are currently used to fight obesity. But compared to injections, pills need more active ingredients, thus are more expensive, the researchers explained.

Novo, experienced a three-fold increase in its shares after the launch of wegovy in 2021 and 40 percent of its estimate comes from experimental drugs.

About 2.3 billion children and adults are currently living with obesity, a medical condition caused by the excessive accumulation of body fat.

Obesity has been linked to hearing loss, ovarian cancerand dementia. Additionally, obesity has also been known to increase the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea, infertility, hypertension, liver and gallbladder disease.