A diabetes drug duel, smarter stenting and teen weight — 4 stories

A weekly triple-hormone injection beat the top semaglutide dose in type 2 diabetes

On 28 October 2026, Eli Lilly announced topline results of TRANSCEND-T2D-2, a phase 3 trial that compared its investigational once-weekly injection retatrutide head to head with semaglutide at its highest approved dose for type 2 diabetes. The open-label trial enrolled 1,298 adults whose type 2 diabetes was not controlled on metformin, with or without an SGLT2 inhibitor; they were randomised 2:2:1 to one of two retatrutide doses or semaglutide and followed for 80 weeks. Retatrutide is a single molecule that activates three hormone receptors at once: GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon.

From an average starting HbA1c of 8.3%, both retatrutide doses lowered it by 2.2 percentage points, against 1.8 with semaglutide. Body weight, which averaged 102.4 kg at the start, fell by 19.5% and 20.9% on the two retatrutide doses and by 9.4% on semaglutide. The most common side effects were digestive: diarrhoea in 28–33% of people on retatrutide and 26% on semaglutide, nausea in 21–24% and 21%. Stopping treatment because of side effects was more frequent with retatrutide: 4.8% and 7.9% against 2.7%.

These figures come from a company press release, not a peer-reviewed paper. Retatrutide is not approved anywhere. The release reports HbA1c, weight, selected cardiovascular risk factors and side effects; Lilly says full results will be presented at a medical meeting and published.

Guiding stents by a flow ratio went with fewer heart events over three years in multivessel disease

A prespecified secondary analysis of the FAVOR III China trial, published in JAMA Network Open and indexed in PubMed on 23 October 2026, looked at three-year results in 3,825 adults undergoing coronary stenting at 26 centres in China. They had been randomly assigned to have the decision about which narrowings to treat guided either by the usual visual reading of the angiogram or by the quantitative flow ratio (QFR).

Among the 2,066 patients with disease in two or more coronary arteries or the left main artery, the composite of death, heart attack or repeat procedure for ischaemia occurred in 12.1% with QFR guidance and 18.1% with angiography alone (hazard ratio 0.65; 95% CI 0.52–0.81), driven by fewer heart attacks and repeat procedures. In patients with disease in a single artery, the rates were 8.6% and 11.0% (hazard ratio 0.77; 95% CI 0.57–1.04), a difference that was not statistically significant.

The test for whether the benefit really differs between the two groups was not significant (P = 0.35), so the analysis does not show that QFR helps only people with multivessel disease; the authors call for further confirmation. One author reported grants from Pulse Medical and being a cofounder of the company.

In a teenage weight trial, adding emotion skills went with less regain a year later

A randomised trial at two university clinics, published in JAMA Network Open and indexed in PubMed on 23 October 2026, enrolled 166 teenagers aged 13 to 16 with overweight or obesity, each with a parent. All families received six months of family-based behavioural treatment: nutrition and activity education, behaviour change strategies and parenting skills. Half also learned emotion regulation skills drawn from dialectical behaviour therapy and emotion-focused therapy. Most sessions ran by video call because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of treatment, weight change did not differ between the groups (difference in BMI z score 0.03; 95% CI −0.05 to 0.10). Twelve months later, teenagers who had learned emotion skills had regained less (difference −0.09; 95% CI −0.17 to −0.02), and 22% of them had a clinically meaningful weight loss, against 4% in the standard programme. They also reported less emotional eating, while parents' weight and teenagers' scores on an emotion regulation questionnaire did not differ.

The trial was modest in size, the confidence intervals around the 22% and 4% are wide, and the effect appeared only at follow-up. It was funded by the US National Institutes of Health.

In UK Biobank, more past infections went with older-looking organs in blood protein tests

On 23 October 2026, Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics published an analysis of 42,395 UK Biobank participants. Researchers counted how many distinct infections had been diagnosed in each person before they gave a blood sample, then estimated the biological age of 18 organs from patterns of proteins in that sample. An organ "age gap" above zero means the protein profile looks older than the person's calendar age.

A higher count of past infections was associated with larger age gaps in 12 of the 18 organs. The link held for infections treated in hospital but not for infections that never needed a hospital stay. Among eight types of infection, sepsis showed the strongest and most widespread associations, and infections recorded more recently were linked more strongly than those recorded long ago.

This is an observational analysis: it found an association between the number of past infections and protein-based organ age gaps, and it cannot establish that infections cause organs to age. The authors declared no competing interests.

This material is for information only and does not replace a consultation with a doctor. Nothing in it is a recommendation to start, stop or change treatment.

Sources

• Eli Lilly and Company. Lilly's retatrutide delivered greater A1C reduction and more than double the weight loss of Ozempic's highest approved dose in head-to-head trial. 28 October 2026. prnewswire.com

• TRANSCEND-T2D-2. ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT06260722

• Zhang H, Shi Y, Guan C, et al. Quantitative Flow Ratio- vs Angiography-Guided Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Secondary Analysis of the FAVOR III China Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(10):e2639926. PMID 42911591, doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.39926

• Boutelle KN, Manzano MA, Pasquale EK, et al. Emotion-Focused Behavioral Weight Loss Treatment for Adolescents: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(10):e2639867. PMID 42911592, doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.39867

• Shi Y, Wang M, Zhao S, et al. Associations between infection and organ age gaps: results from the UK Biobank. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2026;152:106455. PMID 42925715, doi:10.1016/j.archger.2026.106455