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The type 2 diabetes medications Ozempic and Mounjaro and their close relatives prescribed for weight loss, Wegovy and the newly approved Zepbound, have taken the world by storm for their ability to help people shed excess pounds.
But these injectable drugs might not be the last word on weight loss medications. Researchers are working to expand the pool of options in the same medication class — what’s known as GLP-1 agonists. Among them: a daily pill.
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Obesity medicine physician scientist Fatima Cody Stanford, M.D., says she’s “thrilled to see the level of investigation that’s being put forth” with regard to the latest research.
“We've seen this broaden as more and more people are beginning to recognize obesity for the complex, chronic, multifactorial, relapsing disease that it is, and I’m really excited to see that,” says Stanford, who works at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
More than 40 percent of Americans have obesity — defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater based on height and weight — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, putting them at increased risk for other chronic illnesses such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Research shows that losing 5 to 10 percent of your total body weight can help to improve these conditions.
So far, the more popular GLP-1 medications on the market are helping people lose, on average, 12 to 18 percent of their total weight, and some new drugs under investigation are achieving results beyond that. (Some of the current medications are approved specifically for weight loss, while others are approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes but are being prescribed off-label by doctors for weight loss.)
Here’s what to keep an eye on in the weight loss treatment pipeline.
A weight loss pill
A few medications in clinical trials made news at the 2023 American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions, one being a daily semaglutide pill from the same company that makes Ozempic and Wegovy. (Semaglutide, a GLP-1 agonist, is the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, both of which are given as weekly injections.)
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