From amphetamines to slimming pills, there is a long history of weight-loss drug crazes that ended in disappointment, or worse. Until anti-obesity medicines such as Wegovy and Zepbound, none of them had started out promisingly and then produced better and broader results.It is surprising, but studies of the health impact of the new generation of weight drugs have steadily brought more encouraging news. One published this week found that patients who took Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy sustained weight loss for up to four years. It builds on data from last November showing the drug reduced the risks of heart attacks and death.
Health systems are waking up to the full potential of medicines that were first developed to address diabetes: Eli Lilly’s Zepbound anti-obesity injectable was only approved in the US last year. “These drugs are doing more than just one thing and producing benefits across a range of diseases,” Naveed Sattar, a Glasgow University professor who chairs the UK government’s Obesity Mission, tells me.
Other companies are playing catch-up with the leaders in the field, while they advance: Novo Nordisk is trialling its compounds to see if they can reduce alcohol intake and alcoholic liver disease. The reasons to remain cautious over safety and whether these drugs improve health as well as promoting weight loss, which I wrote about last July, are diminishing.