Amgen is developing MariTide, a GLP-1 mimetic that also blocks the gut hormone GIP, making GIP inhibition the centerpiece of its bid to crack a market led by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk A/S. That bet grew out of genetic insights and aims to dial down GIP activity. As Murielle Véniant-Ellison, who heads Amgen's early obesity research, put it: "The real scientific advance, for us, is to more directly block it."
New lab work presented Wednesday in Milan during the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting hints the two strategies have more overlap than you'd think. In cell experiments, both MariTide and Lilly's Zepbound boosted overall cellular activity and amplified GLP-1 signaling. That helps square why, despite moving GIP in opposite directions, both approaches have delivered strong weight loss in clinical testing, even as their side effect profiles differ.
The data suggest the drugs may converge on the same endpoint through different mechanisms. Zepbound's added GIP exposure led to about a 40% drop in the number of cell-surface receptors for GIP, gradually making cells less responsive to that hormone. MariTide, by contrast, goes straight at GIP by blocking it. Either way, both could be tamping down GIP signaling while keeping GLP-1 effects humming.
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Important caveat: these findings come from cells, not people, so they do not prove whether one pathway yields better weight loss or clinical outcomes. They do, however, offer a coherent explanation for how GIP agonists and antagonists might end up in the same place. Next big moment arrives in 2027 with readouts from Amgen's large, late-stage MariTide study. Earlier results raised eyebrows about potency and side effects for the once-monthly formulation, issues that will be in sharp focus.
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