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Fractyl's oral GLP-1 gene therapy just got EMA green light, thoughts?

Posted by tiredmira in Research & News - 0 points, 3 comments.

https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/news/fractyl-healths-glp-1-gene-therapy-trial-given-green-light

Fractyl Health got approval to start a first-in-human study of RJVA-001, basically a one-and-done GLP-1 gene therapy for obesity and T2D. Instead of weekly injections, they're trying to get your cells to make their own GLP-1 long term.

Gonna be honest, the idea sounds appealing on paper because tirz fatigue is real, but I'm skeptical about how durable this actually is. Gene therapy expression tends to wane over time and you can't really "turn it off" if side effects hit. Also for someone like me who stalled on tirz, I don't know if more GLP-1 signaling alone is the bottleneck.

Curious if anyone here thinks this actually moves the needle, or if it's just another flashy mechanism chasing the same pathway?

Comments

  • elle_z: Honestly the "can't turn it off" thing is what gets me too 😅 like with tirz if sides get bad you just stop injecting and it's out of your system pretty quick. Once you've transfected cells to make GLP-1 continuously, you're kinda stuck unless they built in some kill switch. I stalled on tirz too around the 15mg mark and yeah I don't think dumping more GLP-1 was the answer for me either. The weight stuff that actually moved the needle was fixing my sleep and eating windows, tirz just made it ea
  • quiet_ironman: Yeah the irreversible bit worries me too. When I tried tirz, stopping was easy when nausea hit. If your cells keep pumping GLP-1, rough side effects could linger. For me, fixing sleep and meal timing moved the scale more than extra GLP-1 ever did. 😅
  • weekendnate: Yeah the kill switch question is the real one. AAV vectors especially tend to just keep expressing and you're relying on the promoter to self-attenuate, which isn't the same as off. If you get brutal nausea or worse, you're waiting it out. And you're spot on about the messaging thing. Tirz handled the appetite part but the real progress for me came from cleaning up sleep and getting protein dialed in. More GLP-1 on top of an already saturated system feels like rearranging deck chairs.

Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.