Does the New Weight Loss Drug Wegovy Lead to Weight Loss?

obesity is a condition accompanied by countless medical psychological and social challenges and current treatments have had limited efficacy they're often unsustainable and can have significant side effects leaving many feeling hopeless however a new medication was recently approved by the fda for weight loss does it give us reason to be more hopeful that's the topic of this week's healthcare triage wigovi or semiglutide is an anti-diabetic drug administered as a once-weekly injection this drug works for weight loss by mimicking a hormone that targets specific areas of the brain known to be involved with appetite studies have shown that this causes altered food preferences leading to decreased energy intake drugs in the same classes we go vie have had some effect on weight loss but in early studies the effect of wagovi were found to be even more potent a series of trials were published which further explored this to the research five high quality randomized controlled trials were conducted as part of the semi-glutide treatment effect in people with obesity program or a step these trials looked at the drug's effect in overweight and obese individuals with and without diabetes when combined with mild or intense behavioral interventions the mild intervention included individual counseling sessions every four weeks discussing calorie deficit diets and increased physical activity subjects maintained a diary of their food intake and exercise that was discussed at these sessions in the intense interventions subjects were provided with low calorie meal replacements for eight weeks this was followed by counseling to maintain a low calorie diet they were also given a more challenging exercise regimen in counseling sessions closer to every two weeks for the most part each of these trials followed a similar approach patients who had had previous weight loss attempts with a bmi over 30 or a bmi over 27 with one or more obesity related conditions were randomized to receive either increasing doses of injectable bugovi or placebo both groups received equivalent behavioral intervention the results were impressive in the largest trial consisting of over 1900 patients the wagovi group lost 12 percent more of their body weight at 68 weeks compared to placebo the number needed to treat for a 15 weight loss was 2.2 meaning that for roughly every two patients that received wagovi and behavioral modification one could reasonably be expected to lose this significant amount of weight there was no head-to-head comparison of the mild and intense behavioral interventions but this level of weight loss was achieved without the intense behavioral regimen suggesting that mild intervention is sufficient and the results extended beyond weight loss other metrics like waist circumference diabetes markers lipid panels body composition and physical functioning were also improved those are the positives but this treatment isn't without its limitations for one serious side effects occurred in about 1 in 30 people these were mostly gastrointestinal issues such as infections of the gallbladder and none resulted in death that should be taken within the context that currently the most efficacious treatment for obesity is bariatric surgery which has its fair share of problems as well additionally another randomized control trial published in this series found that if treatment was stopped at 20 weeks the same benefits were not seen compared to a group that continued on wigovi this suggests that it may be necessary to continue treatment indefinitely in order to maintain weight loss thus cost could be a significant drawback for patients as joshua cohen wrote in forbes the medication is estimated to cost about thirteen hundred dollars a month without insurance and insurance companies have historically dragged their feet when it comes to coverage of anti-obesity medications obesity is a complicated socio-medical issue and there's substantial frustration from individuals with obesity about bias in health care and in society at large that being said from a medical standpoint we know that intentional weight loss and obese individuals leads to numerous health improvements including all-cause mortality it's too early to know if weight loss aided by we govi will provide the same benefits or if the weight loss will be maintained over time the trials are still limited in terms of long-term follow-up and many key clinical outcomes have yet to be studied early data do suggest that patients on wikovi may be able to decrease certain medications like antihypertensives but there's a lot more to learn for now though the results are promising hey enjoy this video you might enjoy this other video on ivermectin for covid we'd appreciate it if you'd like this episode down below subscribe to the channel maybe go on over to patreon.com healthcaretriage where you can help make the show bigger and better even during a global pandemic we'd especially like to thank our research associates james glasgow edward lilia holm and joe sevitz and of course our surgeon admiral sam