The Next Revolution in Obesity Medicines

Semaglutide – under the banner of Ozempic – has set a revolution of obesity medicines in motion. Suddenly, all of the huffing and puffing about “treating obesity seriously” and “obesity as a disease” is moot. Facts on the ground are persuading people to re-orient their thinking about obesity faster than essays and advocacy campaigns ever could. When there’s a very effective treatment for something, haranguing about whether or not to deal with it becomes unnecessary.

But while this first revolution is raging, another revolution in obesity medicines is coming into view at the horizon. Multi-receptor drugs will bring that revolution.

Changing the Trajectory

In vivid detail, some of the people responsible for this revolution explain the progress that semaglutide has brought. Christine Kusminski and colleagues go on to describe what it will take to claim the promise of fully effective and safe obesity medicines with multi-receptor drugs. Semaglutide brought us partway. Tirzeptide, the first to target more than one receptor, is just starting to bring another increment of progress. They conclude:

“There is no doubt that there have been milestone strides achieved in the path to success for multi-receptor agonists as therapeutic agents for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. It is an exciting time as these medicines move to larger populations beyond clinical trials and hopefully stand the test of time in real-life practice.

“The promise of anti-obesity therapy at this level of efficacy to reduce the burden of T2D and the related cardiovascular diseases, as well as a potential impact on chronic kidney disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, pain management, and other sequelae for which excess body weight is a risk factor, is beginning to be put to the real-world test. Multi-receptor agonist therapeutics are henceforth acknowledged as a hopeful avenue that will undoubtably change the trajectory of the relentless rise in global obesity.

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet

Yes, this is the whole point. The next revolution will come with potency to reduce the harm of obesity across the world’s population. To reverse the relentless rise of health harms caused by obesity. Hang onto your seats, because all the progress we’ve seen is nothing compared to the progress that is coming.

Click here for this impressive review by Kusminski et al. For an excellent new review of GLP-1 physiology and drug development by Jens Juul Holst, click here.

Pieta (Revolution by Night), painting by Max Ernst / WikiArt

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August 20, 2024