Data shows it's possible to maintain weight loss after stopping GLP-1s
By: Nancy Lapid
Reuters
..... Many patients using highly effective GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy may not regain lost weight quickly when they stop treatment, according to an analysis of real-word data shared with Reuters that sheds light on a chief concern about the therapies.
.....
Among thousands of patient treated at a large newsroom of U.S. academic medical clinics, most had kept the weight off or lose even more 18 months after stopping semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic and Wegory, or tirzepatide, sold by ELi Lilly as Mounjaro and Zepbound, researchers from data analytics firm nfernce found.
..... Their data runs counter to findings by Novo, based on the Danish drug-maker's clinical trials, that caution 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 Soundararaian told Reuters.
..... That should pave the way for a disease management approach for obesity, "where it's possible to better predict who can safety discontinue, who requires intermittent treatment, and who needs sustained treatment with GLP-1 drugs to preserve metabolic gains," he said.
..... Patients who receive exercise counseling after their last known GLP-1 prescription date were nearly twice as likely to maintain weight loss as those who didn't, the researchers noted.
..... Observational studies like the one are considered less reliable than the controlled clinical trials that showed weight regain after discontinuing the drugs, the researchers acknowledge.
.....
The nfernece data does not fully account for patients' other medical conditions, how much of the drug they used, or lifestyle factors, but suggests weight regain may be less common than what has been widely reported.
..... "The analysis gives us a little more hope that there are going to be some people who will not regain weight, that it's not a lifelong treatment in everyone," said Dr. Michael Gibson of Harvard Medical School, who worked on the analysis. "We need to better identify who;s going to be successful."
..... Applying artificial intelligence, nference researchers analyzed 14 million doctors' notes and 15 million clinical data entries on more than 135,000 patients treated with a single GLP-1 drug over the course of a year.
.....
Among nearly 18,000 tirzopatide users, 1,615 discontinued the drug. Six months later, roughly 28% had regained the weight they lost. About 36% kept the weight off and 36%continued to lose weight, according to data the researchers are preparing for peer review.
..... Among roughly 37,500 semaglutide users, 2,567 discontinued treatment gained weight, 32% maintained their loss and 35% were still losing weight.