Weight-suppressant drugs have helped millions to lose weight.
But once they’re stopped, people tend to regain most of what they shed. What does this mean for their long-term health?
As director of the Washington Centre for Weight Management and Research, Domenica Rubino has become frustrated with growing perceptions over the last three years that weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, are permanent cures for obesity.
“Obesity is not like an infection where you take antibiotics and you’re done,” says Rubino, sighing. “It’s not any different than hypertension or diabetes or the many other chronic illnesses that we deal with, where you have to use chronic medication.”
For over the past three years, the arrival of a new class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, so-called for their ability to mimic the action of the natural GLP-1 gut hormone that promotes satiety, has transformed the weight-loss field.
Initially, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy, the brand name for a GLP-1-based medicine called semaglutide, for chronic weight management in June 2021. The insatiable demand saw Mounjaro or tirzepatide arrive at the end of 2023 and now a newer, reportedly more effective drug called retatrutide is in the pipeline.
