A healthy diet and exercise tend to be healthy starts for weight loss, but sometimes you need that extra boost to get you on the right track toward a healthy weight. A medication that’s just been approved by the FDA is making headlines for that reason, after research demonstrated that it’s safer and more effective than many other weight-loss drugs.
The Associated Press reported Friday that Wegovy, a new weight loss drug, will likely soon hit the market for consumer use. That’s after recent company-funded research demonstrated that the injectable drug has been shown to help manage weight loss safely, gaining FDA approval. Wegovy is a higher dose of the diabetes medication semaglutide, which has been shown to increase sugar metabolism.
The AP reports that study participants who took Wegovy lost an average 15% of body weight, or 34 pounds on average. This is a leg up on competitors, said Dr. Harold Bays, the Obesity Medicine Association’s chief science officer, who helped conduct Wegovy studies: “With existing drugs, you’re going to get maybe 5% to 10% weight reduction, sometimes not even that,” Bays said. Further, participants saw their weight-loss patterns sustained for an average of 14 months before the rate of weight loss plateaued.
