The doctors and scientists engaged in a long, and hitherto losing, struggle against the rise in diabetes and obesity around the world got excited this week. Who can blame them for bursting into applause as the promising clinical trial results of treatments to follow Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy drug were unveiled?Not only was there a new injectable formula that helped patients to lose up to 24 per cent of body weight in one trial, but the San Diego conference heard of fast progress towards pills that could work as effectively as the Danish group’s Wegovy and Ozempic. The overweight and obese, or at least those that can afford such pills, now have hope.
In the future, obesity might become a chronic condition that can be treated with tablets, as statins and blood pressure drugs have reduced heart attack risk for millions. It will not only be those including Elon Musk, who can pay Wegovy’s US list price of $16,000 per year, who will benefit. Take semaglutide, reduce your appetite, burn more energy and voilà!
But medicines come with health warnings, inscribed in small print on the leaflets contained inside packets, and this generation of medicines will need them. Treatments that mimic the GLP-1 hormone and use allied mechanisms to reduce obesity are having quick results but we cannot yet be certain of their long-term impact. Here are three warnings to consider.