Semaglutide for obesity
By John DiTraglia - Contributing Columnist
In this randomized clinical trial that included 611 adults with overweight or obesity, 68 weeks’ treatment with 2.4 mg once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide vs placebo, combined with intensive behavioral therapy (and a low-calorie diet for the initial 8 weeks), resulted in reductions in body weight of 16.0% vs 5.7%.(1)
Drugs whose names end in “tide” are peptides. Peptides are little proteins but they are still big molecules when compared to most drugs. That means they have to be given by injection since they would be digested into their amino acid building blocks if you swallowed them. Semaglutide is classified as a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). That makes it sound like it acts like glucagon but it doesn’t. Glucagon increases blood glucose in opposition to insulin. Rather GLP-1s are called that because they are made from a precursor they share with glucagon and instead decreases blood glucose by stimulat