Wegovy Users Keep Pounds Off for 4 Years: Analysis

The findings were presented at this week’s European Congress on Obesity conference in Venice, Italy, and also published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The people in the study lost on average 3 inches from their waist circumference after 4 years. The authors also noted that people in the study with lower BMIs were most likely to stop taking the drug, suggesting perhaps that “tolerability may differ among specific BMI classes.” They also reported that there were no newly identified safety concerns as a result of their analysis.

Semaglutide works by mimicking hormone processes in the body that result in feeling full, but it has been linked to numerous side effects, such as gastrointestinal issues. People in the study took the drug as a weekly shot. The retail price of a single weekly dose is around $325. The retail value of taking the drug for 208 weeks (4 years), which was the study period, totals $67,600.

The trial specifically enrolled people age 45 or older with a body mass index of 27 or greater who were diagnosed with heart disease but not type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Results previously published from the same trial were the basis for the FDA’s adding an approval in March for Wegovy to be prescribed for adults with serious heart problems who also have overweight or obesity, making it the first weight loss medication to be approved to prevent life-threatening events related to the heart and blood vessels. It reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke by 20%, previous results from the same trial showed.

“Our long-term analysis of semaglutide establishes that clinically relevant weight loss can be sustained for up to 4 years in a geographically and racially diverse population of adults with overweight and obesity but not diabetes,” said researcher Donna Ryan, MD, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in New Orleans, according to a statement. “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. While our trial focused on cardiovascular events, many other chronic diseases including several types of cancer, osteoarthritis, and anxiety and depression would benefit from effective weight management.”