Survodutide weight-loss drug may reduce harmful fat while preserving muscle

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Experimental drug could reduce harmful liver and visceral fat, without significant muscle loss. Image credit: MNT Design/Photo by Mariia Vitkovska/Schankz/Getty Images

In the phase 3 SYNCHRONIZE-1 trial, participants with obesity or overweight treated with Survodutide achieved up to 16.6% mean weight loss over 76 weeks.
New analyses showed Survodutide reduced visceral fat by up to 34% and liver fat by up to 63.1%, suggesting benefits beyond overall weight reduction.
The majority of weight loss came from fat mass, with analyses indicating that lean body mass was largely maintained.
In people with obesity or overweight and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), around 60% of participants achieved normalization of liver fat levels.

Although newer obesity medications have transformed weight management, weight loss alone may not fully capture improvements in health.

For example, the medications may aim to help with fat loss, but growing evidence suggests that weight loss drugs may also reduce skeletal muscle mass, which could lead to adverse effects, such as sarcopenic obesity.

Excess visceral fat, or fat stored around internal abdominal organs, is likely associated with insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.

Fat accumulation in the liver is also linked with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer.

Survodutide is a dual glucagon and glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1) receptor agonist, developed by biopharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim.

By also activating glucagon receptors, the drug aims to increase energy expenditure and influence fat metabolism, while still reducing appetite and food intake. As such, the drug may produce broader metabolic benefits than weight loss alone.

Now, new phase 3 clinical trial data presented at the 2026 American Diabetes Association (ADA) Scientific Sessions, suggest that the once-weekly experimental obesity treatment can not only reduce body weight but also visceral fat and liver fat.

The findings come from analyses of the phase 3 SYNCHRONIZE-1 obesity trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), and the phase 3 SYNCHRONIZE-MASLD trial, published in Nature Medicine.