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Toronto Sun
12-05-2025
- Health
- Toronto Sun
Lilly's Zepbound trims more belly fat than Novo's Wegovy: Study
Doctors recommend that a person's waistline be no more than half their height Published May 12, 2025 • 3 minute read A Zepbound injection pen. Photo by Shelby Knowles / Bloomberg Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Eli Lilly & Co.'s obesity drug Zepbound helped people trim about two inches more off their waists than Novo Nordisk A/S's Wegovy in the first head-to-head study of the rival medicines. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Zepbound won on all measures of effectiveness in a trial presented Monday at an obesity conference, spurring an average of 47% more weight loss over 72 weeks. Lilly, which funded the research, is leapfrogging Novo in the booming market for powerful new obesity medicines. The impact on waistlines is crucial because they are a surrogate measure for the dangerous fat that gets stored around organs in the abdomen. Novo shares fell as much as 8.6% in Copenhagen trading, more than other drugmakers after US President Donald Trump said he plans to order a cut in US prescription drug costs. The stock has struggled this year, losing about a third of its value. The study findings could influence prescribing decisions, said Louis Aronne, the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital physician and Cornell University professor who led the study. 'It's been shown that a five-centimeter (2-inch) difference could reduce blood pressure and other metabolic parameters,' Aronne said. Patients lost an average of 18.4 centimeters around their waists on Zepbound and 13 centimeters on Wegovy. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Belly fat is linked to a higher risk of diseases such as heart attacks, strokes and diabetes, so doctors recommend that a person's waistline be no more than half their height. 'If you have more abdominal fat, you are much more likely to also have more fat in your liver, in your muscle and in your heart,' said Gijs Goossens, professor of the cardiometabolic physiology of obesity at Maastricht University. He wasn't involved in the study. More Women The research is being presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Malaga, Spain. Lilly disclosed the initial weight loss results last December. Novo noted that Wegovy is approved to help prevent strokes and heart attacks, saying in a statement that 'obesity is about more than just a number on a scale.' The Danish company said it will seek approval in Europe later this year for a higher-dose version of Wegovy that showed 20.7% weight loss in a study. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Although Novo was first to market with Wegovy and its sister drug Ozempic for diabetes, Lilly has gained the lead in obesity prescriptions with Zepbound. The US company's diabetes version of the drug, Mounjaro, is on track to catch up with Ozempic as well by next August, according to Evan Seigerman, a BMO Capital Markets analyst. Patients in the study who took Zepbound were twice as likely as the Wegovy group to lose at least 25% of their body weight. About four-fifths of Zepbound patients lost at least 10%, compared to about three-fifths of Wegovy patients. Side effects were similar, though far more Zepbound patients reported pain or swelling at the site of the shot and slightly more Wegovy patients stopped treatment because of side effects such as nausea and vomiting. Patients in the study weighed an average of 113 kilograms (249 pounds). Almost two-thirds of them were female — a smaller proportion of women than in some studies of obesity medicines. Women typically lose more weight on Zepbound and Wegovy than men do. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Doctors will probably want to consider detailed results on how the two medicines compare across different types of patients before making decisions about what to prescribe, according to Goossens. What weight-loss drug people get may wind up being a case-by-case decision, he said. Lilly plans to share more breakdowns on specific patient populations next month at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Chicago, said Leonard Glass, who heads the drugmaker's cardiometabolic health global medical affairs. The company is also studying Zepbound's impact on illness and death in a trial that's due to deliver results in 2027. Patients who are more obese may ultimately do better with Zepbound, said Aronne, who has also advised Novo Nordisk. However, the head-to-head results still leave plenty of room for doctors to use Novo's drug, he said. 'I'm not trying to minimize the effect of semaglutide,' Aronne said, using Wegovy's generic name. 'The majority of people with obesity will do just fine.' Toronto Maple Leafs Sunshine Girls Health Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Medicare Will Not Cover GLP-1 Drugs for Weight Loss
Wegovy; Zepbound Credit - Steve Christo—Corbis/Getty Images; Shelby Knowles—Bloomberg/Getty Images The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced—without explanation—that it would not proceed with a proposal initiated by the Biden Administration to cover weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound for its beneficiaries. Medicare and Medicaid recipients can be reimbursed for the medications to treat diabetes, but currently the anti-obesity versions of these drugs will not be covered. As an obesity treatment, Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, comes with a slightly higher dose for treating obesity than doses for diabetes; the medication is otherwise the same. For Zepbound, developed by Lilly, it's the same drug and administered in the same dose as Mounjaro, which is used to treat diabetes. The Biden proposal would have included coverage of Wegovy and Zepbound to treat obesity under Medicare Part D for Medicare Advantage. 'While today's announcement was limited, we hope that with the confirmation of the new CMS director, the Trump Administration will move forward to finalize the definition of obesity. It is essential that CMS regulations are aligned with current medical science—and that means recognizing obesity as a serious chronic disease,' a spokesperson from Novo Nordisk said in a statement to TIME. A Lilly spokesperson said in a statement to TIME that the company 'is disappointed in the MA-Part D rule because it is not the best reading of the statute and impacts patient access to obesity treatments,' referring to the program that allows enrollees to receive coverage of prescription drugs, including through private plans and through Medicare Advantage. 'We will continue to work with the Trump Administration and Congressional leaders to ensure people living with obesity are covered by Medicare and Medicaid and are no longer left behind.' The decision not to expand coverage to include obesity treatment would mean nearly 7.5 million Medicare and Medicaid recipients won't be reimbursed for the drug to help them lose weight. Government health care financing analysts noted in Sept. 2024 that the high cost of the drugs would result in higher government spending with 'little information on longer-term effects of the drugs.' However, health experts have raised concerns that denying coverage could lead to additional health costs for insurers, as scientists are discovering that the drugs come with many other health benefits. The drugs have already received additional indications from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to lower the risk of heart disease and obstructive sleep apnea. And researchers are currently studying them for other benefits as well, including reducing the risk of kidney, liver, and brain diseases like Alzheimer's and addiction. Contact us at letters@
