New weight loss pill aims to bridge gap in obesity treatments
An innovative new pill could soon offer a new and affordable weight management treatment, following a successful clinical trial involving NIHR Bristol BRC researchers. The results are published in Obesity.
Sirona, developed by Oxford Medical Products (OMP), is a hydrogel-based pill that is designed to aid weight loss by reducing hunger. After it is swallowed, the pill expands in your stomach, making you feel full faster. This helps you eat less without needing strong medications or injections.
Thirty-nine participants took part in the clinical trial, at the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility. OMP partnered with the NIHR Southampton BRC, the NIHR Bristol BRC, North Bristol NHS Trust and Milton Keynes NHS Trust for the trial.
In the trial, funded by Innovate UK, participants lost up to 13.5% of their body weight in just six months. On average, people with class 1 obesity (BMI 30-35) lost 6.4% of their body weight.
Participants also ate on average 400 fewer calories per day compared to those taking a placebo. For context, recent Government-led research suggests that even a 216-calorie daily reduction could cut the UK’s obesity rate in half.
Professor James Byrne, trial lead and consultant surgeon at University Hospital Southampton, said:
“Obesity is a chronic and often progressive disease. With obesity rates continuing to rise, these results are an important step towards providing a different treatment option.
“This trial demonstrated Sirona could be a safe, affordable, and non-pharmacological treatment to support long-term weight management.”
Sirona will be accessible to anyone with a BMI 25-40, which means Sirona is particularly well-suited to help two key patient types. Firstly, for patients with an overweight BMI (25–30), allowing them to proactively manage their weight and to avoid progressing into obesity and the serious health problems it can bring. Secondly, it is suitable for use as an ‘off-ramp’ for GLP-1 users looking to come off treatment but prevent weight regain, which often occurs once GLP-1 medication ceases.
GLP-1 medications have become very popular for weight loss, with around 1.5 million users in the UK. However, a significant proportion of users pay out of pocket and prices have recently doubled in the UK for some doses of Mounjaro.
Sirona aims to be much cheaper, easier to tolerate, and available to more people.
Dr Elanor Hinton, Senior Research Fellow at Bristol Medical School said:
“This peer-reviewed paper represents a truly collaborative piece, through which NIHR BRCs and NHS clinical sites have supported a UK medtech SME to garner crucial clinical evidence on the pathway to making this new treatment available for the benefit of people living with overweight and obesity.”
Sirona is a dual-polymer hydrogel pill. That means it’s made from two types of safe materials that expand in the stomach. It doesn’t use drugs or chemicals to change how your body works.
The pill was well tolerated during the 24-week study. There were no serious adverse events. This makes Sirona appropriate for patients who have struggled with side effects when using GLP-1 medications.
OMP is planning a study in the UK and USA to further assess the effectiveness of Sirona and confirm these results. The novel weight loss treatment will aim for a 2027 UK commercial launch.
