Higher dose of Wegovy ups both weight loss and side effects

A higher weekly dose of Wegovy reaches weight loss even greater than the standard amount, but this has a higher risk of side effects, depending on the test results.

Previous studies have shown that people who obtain a standard weekly injection of Wegovy, which contains the semaglutide of active ingredients, generally lose approximately 15% of their body weight over a year when combined with exercise and consumption healthy. The drug acts by imitating the action of peptide-1 of the glucagon type hormone type, or GLP1, which has several effects such as slowing stomach emptying and acting on the brain to reduce appetite.

Wegovy, manufactured by the Novo Nordisk pharmaceutical company, is approved to treat people with obesity and those who are overweight and have at least one condition related to weight such as type 2. “But there are patients who do not react as well as they could, or who react well but who wish more than the typical weight loss of 10 to 15%, d’Aberdeen, in the United Kingdom, which was not involved in the study.

To explore if the dose factory could help Sean Wharton at the University of Toronto in Canada and its colleagues, including scientists from Novo Nordisk, have recruited more than 1,000 adults with obesity in 11 countries, including the United States, Canada and certain parts of Europe.

They assigned the participants randomly, none of whom suffered from diabetes, to take a weekly injection of a standard semaglutide of 2.4 milligrams – as Wegovy shows – a higher dose of 7.2 milligrams or an injection of placebo. Those of Sémaglutide were gradually increased to their dose allocated over several weeks. All participants were also invited to eat 500 less calories per day and make 150 minutes of exercise per week.

A year later, people on the standard dose lost 16% of their body weight, on average, while the high dose group lost around 19%. On the other hand, the placebo group has lost around 44% of their body weight.

A third of those in the standard dose group underwent weight loss of 20% or more, while this happened in almost half of those who received the higher dose. Only 3% of the placebo group reached this level of weight loss. This suggests that a higher dose leads to substantial improvement in weight loss, explains Heisler.

At the start of the test, more than a third of the participants in each group had a prediabetes, a state where blood sugar is higher than the average, but not high enough to indicate type 2. diabetes. But at the end of the study, there were 83% less in the high dose group, and 74% less among those in standard dose. “It’s really positive, because, of course, the purpose of weight loss is to improve health,” said Heisler.

But there are drawbacks. While 61% of people in the standard dose have experienced intestine side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, this occurred in 71% of those in a higher dose. Meanwhile, 40% of people on a placebo presented the same symptoms. Indeed, people can have such symptoms for reasons unrelated to treatment, explains Heisler.

In addition, more than a fifth of those of the higher dose group have had unpleasant and painful skin sensations known as DySesthesia. Consequently, four participants interrupted the treatment. On the other hand, only 6% of those who receive the standard dose and only one person in the placebo had this side effect, none of which has stopped treatment.

Together, the results suggest that the advantages of taking a higher dose can prevail over the risks for some people, explains Heisler. “For a patient who must reach more weight loss and do not feel many side effects, perhaps the higher dose will help them get there,” she said. But this can be inappropriate for those who lose enough weight on the standard dose or have a worse side effects, she says. She adds that she would like to see other trials confirm the results before it is brought to the clinic.

In a separate test, Wharton and his colleagues have found early evidence that a higher dose can also allow weight loss and higher improvements in blood sugar in people with obesity and type 2 diabetes. But the results were not statistically significant, which means that other trials are necessary to confirm it, explains Simon Cork at Anglia Ruskin University.