02/27/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 02/27/2024 05:18
The prevalence of overweight and obesity keeps worsening in America despite our enormous collective effort to lose weight. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that overweight and obesity now affect over 70% of Americans and add over $170 billion to annual U.S. healthcare costs. About half of Americans try to lose weight each year, and social trends constantly shift around a myriad of weight loss interventions and products. Among these, weight-loss-inducing medications have historically received limited attention. However, public interest and demand for weight loss drugs has spiked since the introduction of two new drugs: semaglutide (Wegovy) in 2022 and tirzepatide (Zepbound) in 2023.
Semaglutide, tirzepatide, and liraglutide (Saxenda)-another weight loss drug introduced in 2014-are glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), a type of antidiabetic drug that improves glycemic control by modulating insulin and glucagon secretion. GLP-1 RAs also induce satiety by delaying gastric emptying and modulating appetite and may thus help patients reduce their food intake and lose weight. Three other weight loss drugs are available with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval: Orlistat (Xenical, Alli), a drug that suppresses fat absorption in the intestine, and phentermine-topiramate (Qsymia) and naltrexone-bupropion (Contrave), two neuromodulator combinations that suppress appetite. FDA has also approved liraglutide (Victoza), semaglutide (Ozempic, Rybelsus), and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) for treating diabetes, alongside GLP-1 RAs dulaglutide (Trulicity) and exenatide (BydureonBCise, Byetta).
A large body of evidence, including many high-quality studies, has established the safety and effectiveness of FDA-approved GLP-1 RAs for promoting weight loss. However, prescribing information may not cover all questions that physicians and patients may have about how to use the drugs, which may create barriers to treatment. Furthermore, longstanding misconceptions and misinformation spreading through social media may also interfere with optimal utilization of these novel drugs.
ECRI's Clinical Evidence Assessment service recently published a special report on clinical best practices for managing obesity and overweight with GLP-1 receptor agonists. The report reviews available clinical evidence, clinical practice guidelines, and other resources to provide context on GLP-1 RA use for overweight and obesity treatment and support prescriber decisions on patient selection, treatment initiation and dosing, treatment duration and discontinuation, adverse event monitoring, and supporting lifestyle changes in these patients.
Here are five key takeaways from ECRI's clinical evidence research:
ECRI members may access this report in its entirety here. Non-members may register to receive a copy of the report.