Results from a new clinical trial for Eli Lilly‘s obesity medicine have caused a significant upset for the sleep apnea treatment industry.
Shares of ResMed, a firm that sells continuous positive airway pressure machines that treat moderate to severe sleep apnea, fell sharply Monday following clinical trial data published Friday that Eli Lilly’s drug, tirzepatide, reduced sleep apnea in patients by up to 62.8%.
By market close Monday, shares of ResMed fell by over 12% in one day, its largest decline since last August. Inspire Medical Systems, which makes an implanted medical device to treat sleep apnea, also fell by nearly 19% by market close.
Neither ResMed nor Inspire responded to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment by the time of publication.
Eli Lilly sells tirzepatide under the name Mounjaro for Type 2 Diabetes and Zepbound for obesity. The drug is part of the new GLP-1 drug class that has had significant results in lowering cardiovascular disease risk, with a similar function as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, respectively.
Both obesity and Type 2 Diabetes are comorbidities for sleep apnea. Medical experts estimate sleep apnea affects 20 million Americans and nearly 936 million people worldwide, but the disorder is severely underdiagnosed.
Obstructed sleep apnea occurs when a patient’s airway is blocked, preventing the person from breathing while asleep and causing the patient’s blood-oxygen level to drop. These apneic episodes trigger a “survival reflex” in the brain, waking the patient in order to respond to the emergency and breathe.
Johns Hopkins Medicine defines the disorder as having at least five apneic episodes per hour that last 10 seconds each. Mild OSA consists of 5-15 apneic episodes per hour, while more than 15 episodes are considered moderate, and those with greater than 30 are severe.
Patients with severe sleep apnea can have hundreds of episodes in one night, increasing the patient’s risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, and strokes.
Two separate clinical trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday reported that patients using tirzepatide entirely eliminated sleep apnea in 43% and 51.1% of patients respectively.
Atul Malhotra, the lead author of the study and a professor of medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, said the drug could revolutionize treatment of OSA because it is much more accessible than current machines or device-based interventions, which depend on consistent use.
“It means we can offer an innovative solution, signifying hope and a new standard of care to provide relief to countless individuals and their families,” said Malhotra. “This breakthrough opens the door to a new era of OSA management for people diagnosed with obesity, potentially transforming how we approach and treat this pervasive condition on a global scale.”
Malhotra also said that tirzepatide is beneficial because it targets the root causes of the disorder rather than solely symptoms.
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According to data from the discount prescription company GoodRx, both Mounjaro and Zepbound cost over $1,000 for a monthly dose.
As of last month, one in eight people had used Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ozempic, or Wegovy.