Many patients using highly effective GLP-1 drugs may not regain lost weight quickly when they stop treatment, according to an analysis of real-world data that sheds light on a chief concern about the therapies.
Among thousands of patients treated at a large network of academic medical clinics in the United States, most had kept the weight off or lost even more 18 months after stopping semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk as
Ozempic and Wegovy, or tirzepatide, sold by Eli Lilly as Mounjaro and Zepbound, researchers from data analytics firm Nference found.
Their data runs counter to findings by Novo, based on the Danish drug maker’s clinical trials, that caution that many patients will soon regain lost weight if treatment is interrupted.
Obesity specialists have questioned whether people will need to use these medicines for years to maintain the benefits.
“The implication of our real-world evidence is not that rebound risk is negligible, but rather that durability is achievable in routine care,” Nference chief scientific officer Venky Soundararajan said.
That should pave the way for a disease management approach for obesity, “where it’s possible to better predict who can safely discontinue, who requires intermittent treatment and who needs sustained treatment with GLP-1 drugs to preserve metabolic gains,” he said.