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Amgen is trying a unique strategy with its obesity drug candidate: testing whether it can wean patients toward lower or less frequent doses over time. Very early data hints that Amgen’s candidate, called MariTide, may provide longer-lasting weight loss than highly popular obesity drugs on the market like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. Amgen is already seeing if that means its drug could also be dosed differently from Novo and Lilly’s products, which are costly and expected to be taken consistently for life. (Chen, 2/5)

Animal and early-stage human trial data for Amgen's experimental obesity drug published in a medical journal showed that it promoted significant weight loss with an acceptable safety profile, the company said on Monday. The dataset published in Nature Metabolism details outcomes and adverse events for the 49 patients in the Phase 1 trial of the drug, maridebart cafraglutide. Trial participants received different doses of the drug ranging from 21 milligrams to 840 mg. Patients in the study were obese, but did not have other underlying health conditions such as diabetes. (Beasley, 2/5)

Talk to people who have tried to get one of the wildly popular weight-loss drugs, like Wegovy, and they’ll probably have a story about the hoops they had to jump through to get their medication — if they could get it at all. Emily Weaver, a nurse practitioner in Cary, N.C., said she told her patients that finding Wegovy was “like winning the lottery.” Here are six reasons why. (Abelson and Robbins, 2/2)

The drug tirzepatide — sold under the brand names Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes — significantly lowered the blood pressure of adults with overweight or obesity who took it for nine months, according to a new study. (Cheng, 2/5)

When you eat fewer calories than you burn, the body starts scavenging itself, breaking down fat, of course, but also muscle. About a quarter to a third of the weight shed is lean body mass, and most of that is muscle. Muscle loss is not inherently bad. As people lose fat, they need less muscle to support the weight of their body. And the muscle that goes first tends to be low quality and streaked with fat. Doctors grow concerned when people start to feel weak in everyday life. (Zhang, 2/2)

A judge has rejected Abbott Laboratories' effort to dismiss a New York City grandmother's lawsuit claiming it misled consumers into believing its PediaSure Grow & Gain nutrition drinks were "clinically proven" to help children grow taller. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan said on Friday that Joanne Noriega's complaint set forth "strong, evidence-backed reasons" to doubt Abbott's claim that clinical studies supported its marketing claims. (Stempel, 2/3)