"For advances in peptide chemistry and the development of novel dual and triple agonists for the treatment of diabetes and obesity"
Professors Richard DiMarchi and Matthias Tschöp discovered a new class of drugs with unprecedented efficacy in treating diabetes and obesity. Several versions of these so-called gut hormone poly-agonists have advanced through clinical trials. One class representative, with the same active peptide ingredient named tirzepatide advanced by Eli Lilly, has already been FDA approved for treating type 2 diabetes in 2022 as “Mounjaro” and obesity in 2023 as “Zepbound”. Treatment of obese patients with tirzepatide decreased patients’ body weight more than 20%, an excess weight where obesity is typically defined. This level of weight lowering had previously only been possible with gastric bypass surgery. The discovery and validation of these highly efficient drugs for obesity, by DiMarchi and Tschöp have accomplished a transformative breakthrough, which provides a path for reversing the obesity pandemic. Additionally, it has set a direction in drug discovery for complex diseases when there is no effective therapy and more than one integrated mechanism in action might prove equally effective as demonstrated in obesity.
Source: https://ki.se/en/mmk/research/rolf-luft-award/rolf-luft-award-2026