Many people who struggle with apnea now have a new way to help them sleep better. This month, the Food and Drug Administration expanded the approval of Eli Lilly’s drug Zepbound to expressly cover sleep apnea as well.

On Friday, the FDA officially approved Zepbound as a treatment for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity. In two large clinical trials, the drug successfully helped people lose weight and reduce their apnea symptoms. Zepbound is now the first prescription drug approved for obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that affects nearly 12% of Americans.

Apnea happens when our bodies temporarily stop breathing during sleep. This causes the brain to wake the person up just enough to start breathing again, only to repeat the cycle once the person falls asleep again. The more severe a person’s apnea, the more these episodes of cessation or reduction of breathing occur during the night (although not always associated with apnea, snoring is a sign that there is a narrow passage of wind while sleeping). Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, is caused by a physical blockage of the muscles in the airway and is the most common form of apnea.

While there are many risk factors for OSA, obesity is known to be a bigger cause of it. Zepbound’s active ingredient, tirzepatide, has proven to be very effective in treating obesity, with people losing up to 20% of their body weight in trials. That’s why Eli Lilly wanted to test whether the drug was effective in treating apnea.

Across two attemptstirzepatide did as well as expected outperforming a placebo. People lose between 18% and 20% of their body weight. On average, the drug also reduced the frequency of apnea episodes by up to two-thirds, with participants experiencing about 30 fewer episodes an hour. And up to 50% of people who take tirzepatide don’t have any symptoms after a year.

“Today’s approval marks the first drug treatment option for some patients with obstructive sleep apnea,” said Sally Seymour, director of the Division of Pulmonology, Allergy, and Critical Care at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation. and Research, in a statement which notifies FDA approval. “This is an important step forward for patients with obstructive sleep apnea.”

There are other very effective treatments for apnea, especially continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines. So CPAP will remain the gold standard option for many, especially those with apnea who are not obese. But CPAP machines require daily use at night, which may be too difficult for some people to tolerate in the long term. Conversely, the weekly injections required to take Zepbound may be easier​​​​​​​​​for some qualified patients. In clinical trials, people taking Zepbound and CPAP saw better results than any other group—underscoring the potential benefits of combination therapy.

Zepbound and similar GLP-1 drugs are not completely without problems, however. Their common side effects include vomiting, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms. These drugs aren’t cheap either, with list prices flying above $1,000 a month. But the expanded approval should make it easier for some people to get insurance coverage for Zepbound, and just having more interventions available for apnea is invaluable. As with obesity, this recognition could open a new era for the treatment of sleep apnea.