Ozempic ‘can lead to weight loss for years’

A once-weekly treatment with semaglutide, the active ingredient in the Ozempic jab, can produce sustained weight loss for at least four years in adults who are overweight or obese and who do not have diabetes, a new study reveals.

It is one of two studies on the drug presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) which is being held in Venice, Italy, this week.

The first new study, led by Professor Donna Ryan from Pennington Biomedical Research Centre, New Orleans, and being published in Nature Medicine, examines the long-term weight effects of semaglutide.

“Our long-term analysis of semaglutide establishes that clinically relevant weight loss can be sustained for up to four years in a geographically and racially diverse population of adults with overweight and obesity but not diabetes,” Prof Ryan said.

“This degree of weight loss in such a large and diverse population suggests that it may be possible to impact the public health burden of multiple obesity-related illnesses.”

The second study examined the relationship between weight measures at baseline, and change in weight during the study with cardiovascular outcomes.

Between October 2018 and last June, 17,604 adults – aged 45 or older – from 804 sites in 41 countries who were overweight or obese were treated with semaglutide or a placebo for an average of 40 months.

They had previously experienced a heart attack, stroke and/or had peripheral artery disease.

The findings showed that treatment with semaglutide delivered cardiovascular benefits.