Retatrutide TRIUMPH-2 and TRIUMPH-3: the phase-3 results in diabetes and heart disease
This is general educational information, not medical advice and not a recommendation to obtain or use anything. Retatrutide is investigational and not approved. The figures below are results a company reported from its own trials, not a promise of any outcome and not dosing guidance.
The short version: on 23 July 2026, Eli Lilly announced topline results from two more phase-3 trials of retatrutide, its triple agonist. TRIUMPH-2 was in adults with type 2 diabetes; TRIUMPH-3 was in adults with severe obesity and established cardiovascular disease. Both hit their weight-loss endpoints, and the diabetes trial also improved blood-sugar control. The numbers are strong. The asterisk is the same one we flagged for TRIUMPH-1: this is a company press release, not the full peer-reviewed dataset, retatrutide is still not approved, and anything sold under that name today is unapproved grey-market product.
TRIUMPH-2: the type-2-diabetes numbers
TRIUMPH-2 enrolled 1,152 adults who had type 2 diabetes alongside obesity or overweight, and tested three doses of the once-weekly injection over 80 weeks.
| Weekly dose | Average weight loss, 80 weeks |
|---|---|
| 4 mg | ~12.7% (about 13.5 kg / 29.8 lb) |
| 9 mg | ~19.1% (about 20.6 kg / 45.4 lb) |
| 12 mg | ~20.8% (about 22.5 kg / 49.6 lb) |
On top of the weight loss, A1C, the standard three-month marker of blood-sugar control, fell by up to an average of 1.6 percentage points, against 0.2 for placebo. For a drug being developed in diabetes, that combined effect on weight and glucose is the entire point.
Retatrutide is a triple agonist: one molecule that acts on the GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon receptors at once. That third target, glucagon, is the reason it is argued to hit harder than the GLP-1 and GLP-1/GIP drugs before it.
TRIUMPH-3: the harder population
TRIUMPH-3 tested a tougher group: 1,949 adults with severe obesity and established cardiovascular disease, with or without type 2 diabetes, on the two higher doses over 80 weeks.
| Weekly dose | Average weight loss, 80 weeks |
|---|---|
| 9 mg | ~21.6% |
| 12 mg | ~22.6% (about 25.3 kg / 55.8 lb) |
Lilly also reported improvements in cardiometabolic markers in this group, blood pressure and triglycerides among them, which is exactly the kind of data that carries weight in people who already have heart disease. As with everything here, treat those as topline figures until the full dataset is out.
The asterisk is still there
Three things temper the excitement, and they are the same three we raised for the first trial.
It is not approved. Topline phase-3 data is a milestone toward a filing, not a finish line. Until a regulator has reviewed the full package, there is no legal, prescribed retatrutide, for diabetes or for weight.
"Topline" is not the full dataset. A press release gives you the best-framed headline numbers. The complete results, the safety detail, and the always-important dropout and adverse-event breakdown come later, at a medical congress and in a journal.
And most practically: everything circulating right now is grey market. Because the real drug is not approved, what is sold online as "retatrutide" is unregulated research-grade material of unknown identity and purity. The trial figures were produced with a known compound, dosed and monitored in a clinical setting. They tell you nothing about the vial someone is selling on a forum. We went through this in detail in our TRIUMPH-1 breakdown and our retatrutide liver-damage fact-check.
The doses you will see quoted, and what they are not
The trial doses, 4 mg, 9 mg and 12 mg once a week, are now all over the coverage, and that is exactly where people start reverse-engineering a "retatrutide dosage chart" for grey-market vials. We are not going to hand you one: the doses above are what Lilly gave under clinical supervision, not a protocol for you to copy. What a tool can do is the neutral arithmetic. If you already know a vial's strength and how much bacteriostatic water went in, our retatrutide reconstitution calculator converts a target dose into the exact units on the syringe; if the mixing step is the fuzzy part, how much bacteriostatic water to add does just that one calculation. Because it is a once-weekly shot, the level in your body rises and falls between injections, and you can see that curve for retatrutide's half-life in the half-life plotter. For the doses as they appear in the published literature, plus the basics of the molecule, see our retatrutide reference.
What comes next
Lilly has said it plans to file retatrutide with the FDA by the first quarter of 2027. That is the step that turns a topline press release into a reviewable application, and until a regulator has actually looked at the full safety and efficacy package, there is no approved, prescribed retatrutide. The complete TRIUMPH-2 and TRIUMPH-3 data will also surface at a medical congress and in a journal, where independent researchers can check the detail a press release leaves out.
Bottom line
Two more phase-3 wins: up to 20.8% weight loss and a 1.6-point A1C drop in type 2 diabetes, up to 22.6% in people with established heart disease. Retatrutide keeps looking like the strongest incretin drug in development. It is also still unapproved, reported so far only as topline, and impossible to obtain in a regulated form today. Reading the result and reading a purchase page are two very different activities. To understand the drug class from scratch, start with what peptides are.
Sources
- Eli Lilly (investor release), 23 July 2026, Lilly's triple agonist retatrutide successful in two additional phase-3 obesity trials
- PharmExec, Retatrutide delivers up to 22.6% weight loss in two new phase-III trials
- HCPLive, Retatrutide meets phase-3 weight-loss endpoints in two obesity trials
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not replace medical advice. myPeptides gives no dosing recommendations.