Independent · non-commercial · publishes on a quarterly cycle|Current cycle 2026 Q3
Compound Evidence InstituteEvidence synthesis · established 2023Graded assessments of compounds, trials, methods and supply
Document set current to 30 July 2026
Compound monograph · evidence extract

Tirzepatide in prediabetes and progression to type 2 diabetes — evidence extract

The Institute's graded assessment of Tirzepatide for prediabetes and progression to type 2 diabetes, with the contributing trials and the domain-by-domain certainty reasoning.

Document identifier
CEI-MN-003/EV-PREDIABETES
Series
Evidence extract
Version
4.2
Published
16 Jan 2024
Last reviewed
16 Jan 2025
Next review
16 Jan 2027
Identifier
10.71829/cei.mono.3
Certainty
Moderate
Cycle
2024 Q1

§1Evidence extract: Prediabetes and progression to type 2 diabetes

§1.1Question and anchor outcome

Population
Glucose regulation impaired beyond normal limits but below diagnostic thresholds for diabetes, including impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, and intermediate HbA1c.
Intervention
Tirzepatide, subcutaneous once weekly
Comparator
As used in each contributing trial; reported per trial rather than pooled across comparator types
Anchor outcome
Incident type 2 diabetes

Additional outcomes the Institute extracts for this indication: Reversion to normoglycaemia; Change in HbA1c; Change in body weight.

§1.2Contributing trials

Table 1. Trials contributing to the assessment of Tirzepatide in prediabetes and progression to type 2 diabetes.

TrialPhaseDesignRandomisedDurationYear
SURMOUNT-13Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled2,53972 weeks2022

§1.3Certainty assessment

Certainty assessment by domainDowngrading decision recorded for each certainty domain.Certainty domainNo concernSeriousVery seriousEffect on ratingRisk of biasno downgradeInconsistencyno downgradeIndirectnessno downgradeImprecisiondowngrade one levelPublication biasno downgradeTotal downgrading: 1 levelModerate certainty
Figure 2. Domain-by-domain certainty assessment for Tirzepatide in prediabetes and progression to type 2 diabetes. The starting rating for a body of randomised evidence is high; each serious concern reduces it by one level and each very serious concern by two.

Table 2. Reasoning recorded against each certainty domain.

DomainRatingReasoning
Risk of biasNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
InconsistencyNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
IndirectnessNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
ImprecisionSeriousA single small trial contributes the whole estimate.
Publication biasNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
Overall rating: Moderate certainty. The true effect is likely to be close to the estimate, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Further research is likely to have an important impact on confidence in the estimate.

§1.4What this extract does not establish

References cited on this page

References are numbered in order of first citation in this document. Each superscript in the text links to its entry below.

  1. Jastreboff AM, Aronne LJ, Ahmad NN, Wharton S, Connery L, Alves B, Kiyosue A, Zhang S, Liu B, Bunck MC, Stefanski A. Tirzepatide once weekly for the treatment of obesity. New England Journal of Medicine 2022;387(3):205–216. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2206038 · PMID 35658024
  2. Garvey WT, Frias JP, Jastreboff AM, le Roux CW, Sattar N, Aizenberg D, Mao H, Zhang S, Ahmad NN, Bunck MC, Benabbad I, Zhang XM. Tirzepatide once weekly for the treatment of obesity in people with type 2 diabetes (SURMOUNT-2): a double-blind, randomised, multicentre, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. The Lancet 2023;402(10402):613–626. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01200-X · PMID 37385275
  3. Wadden TA, Chao AM, Machineni S, Kushner R, Ard J, Srivastava G, Halpern B, Zhang S, Chen J, Bunck MC, Ahmad NN, Forrester T. Tirzepatide after intensive lifestyle intervention in adults with overweight or obesity: the SURMOUNT-3 phase 3 trial. Nature Medicine 2023;29(11):2909–2918. doi:10.1038/s41591-023-02597-w · PMID 37840095

Identifiers are reproduced only where the Institute holds them. Where a digital object identifier or PubMed identifier is not shown, the Institute has recorded the journal and year and has not constructed an identifier.

Nothing published by the Institute is medical advice, a diagnosis, a prescription, a treatment recommendation or a purchasing recommendation. Compounds supplied for research use are not approved for human or veterinary use in any jurisdiction, and a favourable analytical assessment of a supplier is not a statement that any product is safe or effective. The Institute publishes certainty ratings and never recommendations. No telephone number, messaging handle or ordering channel appears anywhere on this site.