May 14, 2024 – People with heart problems who took the burden loss drug Wegovy maintained their average weight reduction of 10% 4 years after beginning to take the drug.
On average, study participants regularly lost weight over the course of a few 12 months and three months, stabilizing at about 10% below their starting weight after 4 years. Not all people taking Wegovy within the study lost significant weight. After two years of taking the drug, 44% of individuals had lost 10% or more of their body weight, while nearly a 3rd of study participants had lost lower than 5% of their body weight.
The results are necessary because there are questions on the consequences of long-term use of the drug. The energetic ingredient in Wegovy is known as semaglutide and is similar energetic ingredient within the diabetes drug Ozempic. Both are made by the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
“This is the longest study we have conducted to date on semaglutide for weight loss,” said Dr. Martin Holst Lange, Executive Vice President of Development at Novo Nordisk, Reuters“We see that once the majority of the weight loss is achieved, you don't gain it back if you continue taking the drug.”
The Results were presented this week on the European Congress on Obesity in Venice, Italy, and in addition published within the journal Natural medicine.
Study participants lost a mean of three inches (7.5 cm) in waist circumference after 4 years. The authors also noted that study participants with lower BMI were most definitely to stop taking the drug, possibly indicating that “tolerability may differ between certain BMI classes.” They also reported that their evaluation didn't raise any recent safety concerns.
Semaglutide works by mimicking hormone processes within the body that result in a sense of fullness, however it has been related to quite a few unwanted effects, including gastrointestinal problems. Study participants received the drug by injection every week. The retail price of a single weekly dose is about $325. The total retail value of taking the drug over 208 weeks (4 years), the study period, is $67,600.
The study specifically included people aged 45 or older with a body mass index of 27 or higher who had been diagnosed with heart disease but not type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Previously published results from the identical study were the premise for the addition of a Approval in March Wegovy was prescribed to adults with severe heart problems who also suffer from chubby or obesity, making it the primary weight-loss drug approved to forestall life-threatening events related to the guts and blood vessels. Earlier results from the identical study showed that Wegovy reduced the danger of heart attack or stroke by 20%.
“Our long-term analysis of semaglutide shows that clinically meaningful weight loss can be maintained for up to 4 years in a geographically and ethnically diverse population of adults with overweight and obesity but without diabetes,” said researcher Donna Ryan, MD, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, based on a opinion. “This weight loss in such a large and diverse population suggests that it may be possible to impact the public health burden of several obesity-related diseases. While our study focused on cardiovascular disease, many other chronic diseases, including several cancers, osteoarthritis, and anxiety and depression, would benefit from effective weight management.”