What we know about weight-loss drugs is rapidly changing

From the article:

Tens of millions of people around the world are now taking drugs like Ozempic — a kind of real-time experiment that offers far more data than a carefully controlled clinical trial can.

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While these drugs were first approved to treat diabetes, and then obesity, some of them have now been approved to reduce the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular issues and to treat sleep apnea, severe liver disease and kidney disease.

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Scientists are also studying the potential for these drugs to treat a range of other conditions, including long Covid and substance use disorders. Emerging evidence has suggested that people on these drugs drink and smoke less, and are less likely to develop substance use disorders, although scientists want more, and larger, trials before drawing conclusions.

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Many people who stop taking these drugs will regain at least some of the weight they’ve lost, but some people have been able to sustain weight loss. One analysis of records from over 180,000 patients found that over half of those who took semaglutide — the substance in Wegovy — or tirzepatide — the compound in Zepbound — kept at least some weight off or even lost additional weight two years after stopping.

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Hamlet Gasoyan, who studies these drugs at the Center for Value-Based Care Research at the Cleveland Clinic, said patients going off the drugs often turn to other methods to keep the weight off. Those can include intense exercise regimens, bariatric surgery or other medications, whether those are older weight loss drugs or cheaper compounded versions of new ones.