After taking an obesity drug each week for more than a year, 73 percent of teenage study participants recorded a weight loss of at least 5 percent. The results were published Nov. 2 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Research sponsored by Novo Nordisk — the drugmaker that sells semaglutide as an antidiabetic and weight management treatment — found that among 131 study participants who took the drug, 95 noticed a reduced weight by at least 5 percent. The enrolled participants were between 12 and 18 years old, had at least one-weight related condition and were obese or overweight.
Both the placebo group and semaglutide group went through lifestyle intervention, but 11 of the 62 people in the placebo group, or 18 percent, reported a significant weight loss.
Novo Nordisk's brand-name drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic, are already in short supply because of increased demand, which could be because they're trending on TikTok and endorsed by celebrities, including Elon Musk.
FDA data shows the supply for Ozempic will be disrupted for the next few weeks because of increased demand, and Wegovy supply is expected to return to normal levels by the end of 2022.