New study focuses on what happens if you keep taking weight loss drug Wegovy for years

Amid the growing popularity of medications used for weight loss like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, one question remains for users: what would happen if they had to continue taking this medication for years?

Now, a new study released earlier this month by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, sheds light on the long-term results for people taking weight-loss medications.

“This is the longest study we have conducted so far on semaglutide for weight loss,” Martin Holst Lange, head of development at Novo Nordisk, told Reuters. “

Both Ozempic and Wegovy are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 receptor agonists that help people produce insulin to reduce the amount of sugar in their blood.

The medications, made from a compound called semaglutide, work by slowing the movement of food through the stomach and curbing the appetite, leading to weight loss.

The new study, presented this month at the European Obesity Congress in Venice, Italy, focused solely on Wegovy, an injectable drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for weight loss in obese or overweight people with comorbidity. like high blood pressure.

Ozempic is approved by the FDA to treat type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe the drug “off-label” for weight loss.

Here are four questions answered by the study results and what they mean for the future of weight loss.

1. Have people been able to lose weight using Wegovy long term?

Yes.

The study found that the majority of people on Wegovy lost weight, an average of 10% of their body weight, during the first 15 months of using the drug and maintained their weight loss for four years thanks to the continued use of the medication.

“We find that once the majority of weight loss is accumulated, you don’t go back and start gaining weight if you continue to take the drug,” Lange told Reuters.

The results come from a clinical trial involving more than 17,000 people with pre-existing heart disease, as Novo Nordisk tested Wegovy for its heart benefits in overweight and obese people.

2. Have there been any side effects from long-term use of Wegovy?

About 17% of patients over the four-year period stopped treatment because of a side effect from taking Wegovy, primarily nausea, according to the company.

Among all medications used for weight loss, the most commonly reported side effects are nausea and constipation, but irreversible diseases of the gallbladder and pancreas are also reported.

The manufacturers of these medications recommend having a conversation about the side effect profile and personalized risks with a healthcare professional before starting.

3. Why should a person continue to take medication after losing weight?

ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified specialist in OBGYN and obesity medicine, said people should remember that obesity is a chronic disease.

“In the majority of cases, people who take these GLP-1 medications and lose a significant amount of weight can/will gain some or all of it back when they stop taking it,” Ashton said. “Why? It’s because of the etiology, or causes, of overweight and obesity conditions. This is not a temporary situation. It’s a chronic condition.”

Obesity is a disease that affects nearly 42 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Obesity has been linked to conditions such as strokes and heart attacks, hypertension, breathing difficulties, sleep apnea and an increased risk of premature death.

4. What is maintenance like with medications like Wegovy?

Although long-term research has been done on GLP-1 drugs and type 2 diabetes, Ashton said there is still much research to be done on how the drugs can be used long-term to help people maintain their weight loss.

“What hasn’t even been described or reported in the peer-reviewed medical literature is what maintaining these medications looks like,” Ashton said, adding, “This knowledge and awareness needs to be “There, that if you reach your goal weight, and if you stop these medications completely, the vast majority, not all, but the vast majority of people will regain the weight they lost.”

Ashton said patients taking a medication like Wegovy should work closely with their doctor to determine what is best for their individual situation.

In general, she said doctors may prescribe a lower dose of the drug to take long-term or reduce the frequency of doses.

“I think what you’ll see is health care providers, doctors who are experienced in taking care of patients on these medications, when they (the patient) reach their goal weight, they’ll say, ‘D ‘Okay, let’s reduce your dose first,’ and then we could try to space out the frequency of your dosing intervals,” Ashton said. “What I’ve done, and I’ve talked to other obesity medicine doctors who do the exact same thing, is we say, ‘Okay, instead of taking (a injection dose) every week, let’s try to take it. every two weeks.'”

She continued: “Alternating a week on and a week off could be something that we start to see in the future become a more common and formal part of the interview regime.”