Study Suggests Weight-Loss Pill is as Effective as Ozempic

Well|New Data Shows Just How Powerful the Next Weight-Loss Drugs May Be

Doctors call the new weight-loss drugs revolutionary. Game-changing. Unprecedented.

Soon, they may also call them obsolete.

Drugmakers are racing to develop the next wave of obesity and diabetes medications that they hope will be even more powerful than those currently on the market.

“I think what we are going to see very quickly is that Wegovy has received a lot of the press attention, because it got there first,” said Simon Cork, a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in England who has studied obesity. “But it will be rapidly overtaken by much more potent medications.”

On Saturday, researchers presented data at an annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association on perhaps the most anticipated of these medications: a daily pill. A late-stage study showed that the drug, called orforglipron, appeared to be about as effective as a weekly Ozempic injection at inducing weight loss and lowering blood sugar. It is just one of over a dozen experimental medications that researchers will share data about at the conference this weekend.

Some of these drugs are still in early trials, but others could hit the market as soon as next year. They include medications that may lead to more weight loss than the roughly 15 to 20 percent body weight people lose on existing drugs. They may also be easier to take than weekly injections and help people shed pounds without dropping as much muscle. More competition — and, in the case of the pill, lower manufacturing costs — might also mean that, eventually, patients pay less.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, we have Ozempic, everything’s good now,’” said Megan Capozzi, a research assistant professor at the University of Washington Medicine who studies treatments for diabetes and obesity. “But I think there are so many more things to improve on.”