A new pill could help patients lose more weight than current oral weight loss medications, a promising new study has found.

The drug, called orforglipron, is a GLP-1 agonist and targets the same appetite receptors as fat jabs such as Mounjaro, Wegovy and Ozempic, but is taken in tablet form rather than administered via injection.

Orforglipron has been developed to treat type 2 diabetes and as part of a review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) was compared to an existing medication, oral semaglutide, sold under the brand name Rybelsus.

Rybelsus and the Wegovy Pill – which launched in the US in January and NHS chiefs hope to roll out in the UK by the end of this year – are the same medication, but the former is approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and the latter for weight loss.

In a trial of over 1,500 patients from Argentina, China, Japan Mexico and the US, patients who took orforglipron for a year experienced a greater drop in blood sugar levels and lost more weight than those on semaglutide.

In the study, 1,698 participants were randomly assigned to receive either orforglipron, at a dose of 12mg or 36mg, or oral semaglutide, at 7mg or 14mg.

Participants took their medication every day for a year, starting on a lower dose and increasing every four weeks until reaching their randomly assigned dose.

Results showed that both doses of orforglipron were better than that of semaglutide in reducing blood glucose levels, and they also lost more weight.

The new drug was tested against the diabetes treatment version of the Wegovy pill 

Patients with type 2 diabetes are recommended to lose between 5-15 per cent body weight to help manage their condition, with a more than 10 per cent reduction having disease-modifying effects including potential remission.

Up to 43 per cent of participants on orforglipron were able to drop at least 10 per cent body weight, while only 21 per cent of those on semaglutide dropped enough weight to slash their risk of heart complications.

However, the weight loss seen among people taking orforglipron was not as extreme as results seen in patients taking Mounjaro, which contains the active ingredient tirzepatide.

Orforglipron can also be taken with food, making it much more convenient than semaglutide, which needs to be taken on an empty stomach. Experts have already stated that they believe GLP-1 tablets will be more accessible than injections – and potentially in the future, more affordable due to different packaging, storage and shipment requirements.

Writing in medical journal The Lancet, the authors said: ‘Our results suggest that orforglipron represents an important advancement in the oral treatment landscape for type2 diabetes.

‘It’s efficacy, safety, tolerability, and simple doing could address important barriers associated with current therapies, offering a new highly efficacious and safe option for individuals seeking glycemic and weight control with the use of injections.’

The researchers noted the difference in blood sugar control was already significant after just a month of treatment and was sustained until the end of the trial.

The results were particularly strong for patients with higher blood sugar levels at the start of the trial.

Around a quarter of patients taking orforglipron managed to reach near-normal blood sugar levels during the course of the study whilst only around 12 per cent of those on semaglutide managed to reduce their blood sugar to safe levels.

If approved, orforglipron (which like Mounjaro, is manufactured by Eli Lily) could become the next GLP-1 drug approved for use ‘off label’ for weight management.

Weight loss jabs have transformed obesity treatment, offering dramatic weight loss that was largely out of reach with diet and exercise alone.

Two in three Britons are now overweight or obese, driving a nearly 40 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes among under 40s.

The researchers concluded: ‘Orforglipron represents meaningful improvements in glycemic control and weight reduction compared with oral semaglutide in patients with type 2 diabetes, and with larger improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors and simplified administration.’

However, during the course of the study around 10 per cent of participants on orforglipron had to stop taking the pill due to adverse reactions, such as gastrointestinal issues.

Only 5 per cent of patients taking semaglutide experienced similar adverse reactions.

Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior was again at the centre of a disparaging racist abuse scandal after Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni allegedly called him a “monkey” during the Champions League playoff between the European clubs. In just eight years at Real Madrid, Brazil football star Vinicius Junior has experienced at least 26 incidents of racist abuse, according to La Liga.

The above shocking stat only highlights how far we are from eliminating racism from the world’s most popular sport in 2026. This was a prestigious Champions League game involving one of the biggest football clubs in the world, and yet racism found a way into all of this.

No surprise that Prestianni rcially abused Vinicius 

The 20-year-old Argentina winger Prestianni is young, and some may say a little stupid, but this wasn’t just some harsh tackle or choice words about a player or his family;
it was a direct attack on Vinicius’ race. It was just another way of trying to highlight race supremacy while degrading another ethnicity.

That the abuse came from Prestianni, when there were so many other Benfica players on the pitch as Vinicius scored the winning goal on Tuesday and celebrated extravagantly, was a direct result of cultural issues that persist back home in Argentina.

Argentine players have constantly been involved in alleged racist incidents on and off the football field. The Lionel Messi-led Argentina national football team was also embroiled in a similar incident after winning the Copa America by beating Colombia in the final in 2024.

This is what happened between Vinícius Jr and Prestianni.

He scored an absolute banger, he went to celebrate it, got booked, and then the Argentine Prestianni was pissed and reacted by covering his mouth to racially insult him. pic.twitter.com/Iv7tcFvAeQ

— 10 (@Kylian) February 17, 2026

In a disheartening video that went viral, Chelsea player Enzo Fernandez and his Argentina teammates were seen singing a derogatory song towards the
Black players of the French football team, questioning the legacy of their ancestors and their right to represent the European nation.

One part of the song was: “They play for France but their parents are from Angola. Their mother is from Cameroon while their father is from Nigeria. But their passport says French.”

Angered by the chants, France defender Wesley Fofana hit out at the Argentina team with a strongly worded message on X: “Football in 2024: uninhibited racism.”

In 2025, Argentina was once again among six national federations that were found guilty of racist abuse during World Cup qualifiers.

And it’s not just restricted to the national team. In 2022, supporters of Argentine football club Boca Juniors were arrested during a Copa Libertadores match against Brazil’s Corinthians in Sao Paulo for making “monkey gestures” and Nazi salutes.

Argentina wants ‘White society’

To understand the deeper reasons why Argentine players or fans have consistently been involved in racist incidents, one needs to have a closer look at their culture.

In an article from New Lines Magazine that was published in 2024, Pablo Alabarces, a professor of popular culture in the faculty of social sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, argued that Argentinians are suffering from a superiority complex.

As the population of Black people decreased in Argentina, the belief among locals that they are merely European whites living in South America has made it hard for them to have themselves compared to other races.

“Argentina has constructed several overarching myths — no nation can do without them. One such myth is that we are a European society,” Alabarces wrote.

He also added that there’s a lack of awareness among Argentines about what really constitutes racism. As the majority of the Black population in Argentina before independence were slaves, it has left behind the feeling that “Black” is a word for a classist insult, as Black people are seen as poor people.

“In Argentina, ‘there are no Black people.’ Therefore, thankfully, we are not racist — we cannot be racist. ‘Black’ is used only as a classist insult: Black people are the poor people. The poorer, the blacker. But that is not racism, according to the good conscience of the white, urban middle classes,” Alabarces added.

According to the 2022 census, Afro-Argentines make up less than 1% of Argentina’s population. Not surprisingly, it was around 15% in the 19th century, around the time of freedom from Spain. Where did they all disappear? Make of it what you may, but academicians and historians argue that there has been a concentrated effort in Argentina to make society look ‘White’ and hide Black people.

Maybe the highly frequent racist abuse acts by their footballers and fans are a symptom of the same ill-thought-out policy. The saddest thing is that there is no realisation yet that they are being racist.