A rare study into the long-term efficacy of obesity drugs like Ozempic suggests they may not shed as much fat as the hype around them claims.
Experts at the Cleveland Clinic examined medical records of 4,000 obese people prescribed different doses of semaglutide – marketed as Wegovy and Ozempic – or liraglutide, sold under the brand names Saxenda and Victoza.
On average, semaglutide led to a 5.1 percent weight loss versus 2.2 percent for liraglutide after one year.
Their findings could deal a blow to those millions of Americans who have been led to expect drastic, life-changing weight loss.
People who took semaglutide, marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy, lost more weight over at least a year than patients who took an older iteration, liraglutide, marketed as Saxenda and Victoza
For someone taking Ozempic who starts out weighing 300lbs with a life-threateningly high body mass index, they mightonly lose 15lbs, making them a still-overweight 285lbs.
Researchers said the findings offered rare insight into the long-term effectiveness of weight loss medications.
These medications have become so popular in the past three years that manufacturers and pharmacies have struggled to keep up with the extreme demand.
They examined medical records logged from January 1, 2015, through July 28, 2023, of 3,389 patients prescribed semaglutide or liraglutide, the older iteration of the most popular Wegovy and Ozempic.
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Some of the patients, whose average age was 50 and average body mass index was 38.5, were prescribed one of the drugs to treat obesity, while others were given a drug for their type 2 diabetes.
On average for both drugs, patients lost 3.7 percent of their body weight after one year.
Those taking semaglutide lost 5.1 percent, while liraglutide users lost 2.2 percent.
When broken down further by group, they concluded that patients taking one of the medications for obesity lost more weight than those who were taking it for type 2 diabetes.
Those taking the drugs for obesity tend to start out on higher doses than those being treated for diabetes, which could have led to the notable difference in weight lost between the obesity group and the type 2 diabetes group.
Patients taking the obesity drugs were also more likely to stay on them uninterrupted for one of several reasons, such as continued insurance coverage and willingness to stick to them long-term.
Semaglutide patients taking it for obesity lost 12.9 percent of their body weight after a year, while those taking it for diabetes lost 5.9 percent.
People taking liraglutide for obesity lost 5.6 percent, while those taking it for diabetes lost 3.1 percent.
An estimated 15.5 million Americans have taken weight loss shots like Wegovy and Ozempic at some point in their lives with the hope of losing up to 20 percent of their bodyweight
Dr Shauna Levy, an obesity medicine specialist and bariatric surgeon at Tulane University who wasn’t involved in the study, previously told DailyMail.com: ‘Anti-obesity medications are not a magic bullet… These are medications, they come with risks, they come with benefits, it’s not one size fits all,’ she said.
She said that for people who need serious weight loss, weight loss medications can only take you so far.
The study aimed to determine whether people in the real world could reasonably achieve significant weight loss of 10 percent or more after long-term use.
That benchmark was chosen because research has shown that losing 10 percent of one’s body weight can lead to significant improvements in health markers, including reduced risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hight blood pressure, and heart disease.
Pre-approval studies into Wegovy and Ozempic estimated body weight loss to range from five percent to 15 or 20 percent. In clinical trials for both pre-approval spanning over a year, patients lost at least five percent of their body weight, with average weight loss ranging from 15 to 20 percent
The latest findings could deal a blow to the hopes of the roughly 15 million Americans who have opted to take semaglutide or liraglutide to drop pounds.
Semaglutide’s meteoric rise in popularity since 2021 has produced thousands of patient success stories of people who have long dealt with obesity and its related health effects, such as diabetes and heart disease, losing 20, 50, and even more than 100 pounds with the help of the drugs.
The graph shows that over a third or patients taking semaglutide for obesity achieved the benchmark 10 percent or more body weight lost vs about 17 percent of those taking it for diabetes. Around 14 percent of people taking liraglutide for obesity lost at least that much, as well as nine percent of those taking it for diabetes
At the same time, the drugs have taken over Hollywood, with a long list of celebrities having been rumored or confirmed to have taken a weight loss medication to slim down before a red carpet event.
This has resulted in millions of Americans clamoring to get their hands on the miracle drugs, leading to a protracted shortage that has forced some people to travel hundreds of miles to get them.
The Cleveland doctors said: ‘Having real-world data could help manage expectations regarding weight reduction with GLP-1 RA medications and reinforce that persistence is key to achieve meaningful results.’
Overall, they recorded better results in patients taking semaglutide than those taking liraglutide continuously for at least 90 days. Those starting out with a higher BMI were also more likely to see more weight loss.
Specifically, 61 percent of patients taking semaglutide for obesity who stayed on it for a year lost at least 10 percent of their body weight, close to the results from trials where 69 percent lost at least 10 percent.
The research was published in JAMA Network Open.
The study’s greatest strength was its large, diverse patient population, which helped ensure that the people it studied were actually representative of the wider population.
At the same time, they did not have access to other useful information about the patients, including their diets, whether they were on other medications for diabetes, their genetics, and how their bodies respond to changes in glucose levels.
