Key Points
• This year’s European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) 2026 Annual Meeting in Milan, Italy, (from September 28 to October 2) will feature new data on first-line treatment approaches for both type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), with a focus on recent trial results, diabetes complications, emerging technology, and obesity management.
• The final version of a new joint consensus on T2D management from EASD and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) will be presented and simultaneously published.
• The EASD will also release new guidance on the use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in people with T2D.
• And, as in years past, several major GLP-1 clinical trial results will be presented.
“The Congress will address the multiple aspects of diabetes, a paradigm for noncommunicable disease with multiple risks for organ damage and a very much unsolved need in terms of cure. This is the case for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes,” EASD president Francesco Giorgino, MD, PhD, told Medscape Medical News.
• “The liver is also covered to a large extent this year, together with usual cardiovascular risk, renal risk, and other potential comorbidities of diabetes,” he added.
Article Key Points
• EASD 2026 highlights: T1D/T2D first-line therapy, complications, tech, obesity.
• New EASD/ADA T2D consensus to include CGM + liver screening guidance.
• First-line T2D may shift toward GLP-1 RA and/or SGLT2i; metformin role re-evaluated.
• Early-onset T2D remission strategy: exercise-focused lifestyle intervention without drugs.
• Major incretin data: retatrutide, tirzepatide, orforglipron, survodutide, trevogrumab.
EASD Honorary Secretary Matthias Blüher, professor of clinical obesity medicine at the University of Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany, noted that “we are building our conference program on the very recent success in novel treatment approaches, both for the early treatment of people living with type 1 diabetes, and also for people living with type 2 diabetes and/or obesity. There will be a focus on obesity when it comes to pharmacotherapies, with novel trials or subgroup analyses of already published or presented big trials.”
T1D: Screening, Intervention, Transplantation, and Technology
The conference will kick off with the Claude Bernard prize lecture by Professor Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, director of the Institute of Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Centre Munich, Munich, Germany. Her topic, “Type 1 Diabetes: A New Beginning” will focus on her pioneering work in identifying stages of preclinical T1D by the presence of autoantibodies, leading to the ability now to screen for the condition and intervene with agents such as teplizumab.
The Bernard prize, the most prestigious of the EASD, “is a very important recognition to an important clinician and scientist who has really helped the community to think how to address this need of trying to delay the onset of T1D,” Giorgino said.
Other T1D-related sessions will cover the latest in stem cell-derived pancreatic islet transplantation and progress toward the ultimate goal of fully “closed-loop” insulin delivery. A joint EASD-Breakthrough T1D session, “Shaping the Future of Type 1 Diabetes Care” on the final meeting day will summarize the field.
T2D: Rethinking First-Line Therapy, Aiming for Remission
Also on the final day of the meeting, a joint panel from EASD and ADA will present the new final consensus report on the management of T2D, incorporating the large amount of information that has been gathered since the last such document was published in 2022. A draft of the new report was presented in June 2026 at the ADA’s annual Scientific Sessions.
The consensus will incorporate recent diabetes-specific data from the major GLP-1 trials and is expected to offer new recommendations for liver screening along with the usual eye, kidney, heart, and nerve complication screening. It will also recommend consideration of using a GLP-1 receptor agonist and/or an SLGT2 inhibitor as first-line T2D therapy, with or without metformin.
In addition, results from the SMARTEST trial — to be presented on Thursday during the meeting — will address the question of whether SLGT-2 inhibition should replace metformin as first-line T2D therapy. While this particular trial looks at dapagliflozin, the wider implications are what’s important, both Giorgino and Blüher noted.
“We know that SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists have multiple benefits in addition to the ones that metformin can provide,” said Giorgino. “Metformin is an important drug that provides glycemic benefits, is weight neutral, and doesn’t cause hypoglycemia, but it is not protective in terms of cardiovascular risk. So why should we continue to use a drug for a period of time during which people with diabetes are characterized by increased cardiovascular risk? Better to use from the beginning the drugs that show a more comprehensive level of protection.”
Indeed, Blüher noted, the European Society of Cardiology has already recommended that approach for people with diabetes at moderate or high cardiovascular risk. “I think the main question in this symposium will be what are the arguments in favor of [starting with] metformin?”
Another symposium on Thursday will feature results from the RESET for REMISSION trial that takes a completely different first-line approach in people with early-onset T2D (age, 18-45 years): Aim for remission via lifestyle modification, particularly exercise, without drugs. “Exercise has the ability to improve insulin secretion from islets in people with type 2 diabetes and also animal models…We believe very much in this concept that if you contract your muscle, you are going to do something good to your beta cells,” Giorgino commented.
And in support of another relatively recent approach to T2D management, a session on Wednesday will present new EASD guidelines for use of CGM in T2D.
“Treatment of type 2 diabetes has changed significantly over the years,” said Blüher. “It would be very good to have guidance on how to use or how to implement CGM to guide therapeutic decision-making.”
Blüher said that from this symposium he expects “to get insights about critical treatment phases where CGM could really make a difference. There have been publications, but [they are] not yet implemented in any of the recommendations.”
More Incretin Clinical Trial Results
The meeting will highlight the latest findings from GLP-1 trials, including:
Retatrutide: Full results from the phase 3 TRIUMPH-2 study of the investigational triple GLP-1/GIP/glucagon receptor agonist for treating obesity in people with T2D will be presented on Wednesday. Eli Lilly had previously released topline data from that trial in July 2026, showing weight loss of up to nearly 50 lb at 80 weeks. The company plans to submit a Biologics License Application for retatrutide to the FDA in early 2027.
Tirzepatide: The pivotal 5-year phase 3 SURPASS-CVOT trial, presented at EASD 2025, showed cardiovascular benefit of tirzepatide in people with T2D and established cardiovascular disease, although the drug was not superior to dulaglutide in this respect. Nonetheless, those findings led to the recent FDA approval of the drug to reduce cardiovascular risk in people with T2D. A session at this year’s EASD will examine “clinically relevant trial insights” from SURPASS-CVOT, including implications for concomitant therapies and diabetic eye disease, patient-reported outcomes, and mortality.
Orforglipron: Full results from the ACHIEVE-4 trial of the oral nonpeptide GLP-1 receptor agonist orforglipron (Foundayo, Eli Lilly) will be presented on Thursday. Topline results from that trial, released in April 2026, showed noninferior cardiovascular benefit compared with insulin glargine in people with long-standing T2D at increased CV risk. The drug was approved in April 2026 for weight management and is under review for T2D treatment.
Survodutide: Results from the phase 3 SYNCHRONIZE-2 trial of survodutide in people with T2D and obesity will be presented on Thursday as well. The investigational glucagon receptor/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist was previously shown to produce significant weight loss along with reductions in visceral fat and liver fat in SYNCRHONIZE-1 and SYNCHRONIZE-MASLD.
Trevogrumab: Late Thursday, new weight loss and body composition outcomes will be presented from COURAGE, a phase 2 trial of the investigational monoclonal antibody trevogrumab (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.). Interim data presented at EASD in 2025 showed that the drug was associated with lean mass preservation and greater loss of fat mass in people taking semaglutide.
Asked what clinician attendees can expect to take back from the meeting immediately to their practices,
Giorgino replied, “Holistic management of diabetes not only focusing on hyperglycemia but all the different aspects of organ damage, and the new data on technology.”
Blüher added, “I think the most important is that they hopefully come back and know better which person living with diabetes of any type would benefit the most from which treatment.”
From www.medscape.com
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