Could 19, 2023 — Almost half of teenagers given the load loss drug semaglutide (Wegovy) managed to lose sufficient weight to drop beneath the medical threshold for weight problems, a brand new examine exhibits.
By comparability, solely 12.1% of adolescents with weight problems given a placebo within the 68-week trial dropped beneath the edge.
Semaglutide belongs to a category of medication often called GLP-1s as a result of they mimic the consequences of glucagon-like peptide 1, a hormone made within the intestine that helps folks really feel full.
The examine, known as STEP TEENS (Semaglutide Remedy Impact in Folks with Weight problems), additionally exhibits that 74% of individuals within the examine shifted down by no less than one physique mass index, or BMI, class after receiving a once-weekly injection of the drug in comparison with 19% of these on placebo.
“In a sensible sense, we see that semaglutide decreased weight to a stage beneath what’s outlined as medical weight problems in practically 50% of the teenagers in our trial, which is traditionally unprecedented with therapies aside from bariatric surgical procedure,” stated Aaron Kelly, MD, co-director of the Heart for Pediatric Weight problems Medication on the College of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who offered the most recent knowledge on Thursday on the European Congress on Weight problems in Dublin, Eire.
There was a couple of 23-fold increased probability of a teen dropping beneath the weight problems threshold when utilizing semaglutide, in comparison with placebo, he stated.
This evaluation, printed within the journal Weight problems on Wednesday, follows the publication final fall of the principle outcomes of the examine within the New England Journal of Medication, which confirmed semaglutide helps adolescents drop some pounds.
The drug was permitted by the FDA in January for the remedy of weight problems in these aged 12 and over.
Grace Malley, PhD, with the Baby & Adolescent Weight problems Service, Youngsters’s Well being Eire, in Dublin, stated the teenagers’ entry to complete well being care is crucial for the right remedy of weight problems.
“Remedy requires a long-term, multidisciplinary chronic-care strategy, and often when remedy stops, the organic mechanisms driving the weight problems start once more to drive the buildup of [fatty] tissue,” she stated. Which means that “long-term remedy together with vitamin remedy, train … behavioral help, and sleep remedy must be out there to households together with pharmacotherapy and surgical intervention the place required.”
“The outcomes of the STEP TEENS examine characterize a promising growth for the remedy of adolescent weight problems and for related issues associated to liver perform,” Malley stated.
Train a A part of the Plan
On this latest evaluation of the STEP TEENS trial, the authors examined the impact of semaglutide on transferring 134 adolescents from one BMI class to a different, together with dropping beneath the weight problems threshold into the chubby or regular weight class; 66 teenagers got a placebo.
All contributors additionally acquired dietary counseling and a objective of 60 minutes of moderate- to high-intensity bodily exercise per day.
“After 68 weeks not loads occurred [in placebo participants], nonetheless, 12.1% of placebo contributors did drop beneath the weight problems threshold into chubby or normal-weight classes,” stated Kelly.
However referring to folks on semaglutide, “a complete of 45% of sufferers on semaglutide dropped beneath the medical BMI lower level for weight problems, such that 19.5% dropped into the chubby class and 25.4% decreased their BMI into the traditional weight class,” he stated.
Whereas not “statistically important,” Kelly identified that “females tended to reply higher to semaglutide, likewise youthful adolescents, and center physique weights tended to reply higher to the drug, and there was an identical sample with weight problems lessons.”
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