In Study, Almost Half of Obese Teens Were No Longer So After Taking Wegovy/Ozempic

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

The drugs Wegovy and Ozempic are all the rage for weight loss these days, and now a new study shows these injections may be game-changers for obese teenagers, too.

This trial, funded by drug maker Novo Nordisk, found that nearly half of all adolescents on semaglutide (Wegovy/Ozempic) were able to achieve a healthy weight in about 17 months.

Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, which slows digestion, decreases hunger, reduces how much people eat, and prompts weight loss. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Wegovy for treating obesity in kids and adults aged 12 years and older, while Ozempic has been approved at a lower dose to treat type 2 diabetes.

"Semaglutide appears to be highly effective in helping teens reduce their body mass index [BMI] to a level below the clinical cutoff for obesity," said study author Aaron Kelly, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, in Minneapolis. "Pharmacotherapy should be offered to all adolescents with obesity who are medically eligible."

For the study, teens with high BMIs received either 2.4-mg of semaglutide weekly (the maximum dose) or a dummy (placebo) injection for 17 months. Everyone in the study was encouraged to exercise for 60 minutes a day and got advice about healthy eating.

Fully 45% of teenagers who took once-weekly semaglutide lost enough weight to drop below the clinical cutoff for obesity, meaning they moved to the normal weight or overweight category. By contrast, just 12% of the teens in the placebo group achieved that status.

The American Academy of Pediatrics backs this up in its latest guidelines on childhood obesity treatment. They state that children with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications.

It's not just the weight loss, Vaidya said. "These kids also become healthier."

The study was published online recently in the journal Obesity.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/ozempic-2662230293.html