GLP-1 drugs may open a new path to weight loss for adults with type 1 diabetes

If you live with type 1 diabetes and carry extra weight, here is news worth a second cup of coffee. A new trial of GLP-1 drugs, the medicines best known for type 2 diabetes and weight loss, found that adults with type 1 diabetes lost real weight on one of them, and had no dangerous blood sugar crashes along the way.

The drug is called acmopatide. In the trial, people taking it lost between about 3% and 7% of their body weight in 16 weeks, while people on placebo did not lose any. Their blood sugar control got better too, and nobody had diabetic ketoacidosis or severe low blood sugar.

How the study worked

This was a phase 2 trial, the stage where a new drug is first tested for what it does and how safe it looks. It included 111 adults with type 1 diabetes and overweight or obesity. They were assigned by chance to take a once-daily shot of acmopatide at one of three doses (1.8, 4.1 or 6.6 mg) or a matching placebo shot for 16 weeks. Neither the participants nor the researchers knew who got what. The results were published Oct. 28, 2026, in Diabetes Care, and because the trial was fairly small and short, longer studies will add more detail.

What they found

Weight loss was the headline. People on acmopatide lost between 3.3% and 6.7% of their body weight, depending on the dose. People on placebo gained 0.3%. In plain terms, the drug groups lost somewhere around 3% to 7% of their weight, and the placebo group stayed put.

Blood sugar improved as well. HbA1c, the number that reflects your average blood sugar over a few months, dropped by 0.4% to 0.6% on the drug, compared with 0.3% on placebo. At the 4.1 mg dose, 55.6% of people reached an HbA1c below 7.0%. On placebo, 33.3% did. So more than half of that group hit the goal, compared with about one in three on placebo.

There was also a benefit for insulin. At the two higher doses, people needed less total daily insulin than those on placebo.

The most common side effects were stomach-related, which is typical for this kind of medicine. Most important for people with type 1 diabetes, no one had diabetic ketoacidosis or severe low blood sugar during the trial.

Why was this question so important?

Type 1 diabetes means the body makes little or no insulin, so people take it every day. Many of them also deal with extra weight, and that is harder to tackle when insulin itself can add pounds.

GLP-1 drugs are already widely used in type 2 diabetes and for weight loss, but they have not been a routine option in type 1. Researchers wanted to see whether a drug in this family could help without causing ketoacidosis or low blood sugar emergencies. In this trial, it did. Acmopatide is still an experimental drug, so you can’t get it at the pharmacy yet. These results are a clear step toward a day when it might be an option.

What you can do today

Get your numbers ready for your next diabetes visit. Write down your most recent HbA1c, your current weight and your average daily insulin dose. Then ask your endocrinologist what options exist for weight and whether any trials are enrolling. Having those three numbers on one page makes that conversation faster and more useful.