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Health

Beyond Wegovy: Could the next wave of weight-loss drugs end obesity?

Wegovy and Ozempic have made headlines, but a new wave of more effective drugs like Mounjaro have the potential to end obesity altogether. How will they work and are they safe?

By Clare Wilson

11 July 2023

×îÐÂÂé¶¹ÊÓÆµ. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Lisa Sheehan

There are TikTok hashtags with millions of followers, endless column inches over celebrities’ waistlines and streams of media coverage when trial results come out. It is rare that a new medicine gets so much attention. Then again, it is even rarer that a licensed drug causes safe and rapid weight loss with minimal effort.

A year ago, most people hadn’t heard of semaglutide, a drug developed to treat type 2 diabetes around a decade ago under the brand name Ozempic. Then, in 2021, it was approved in the US as a weight-loss aid under the name Wegovy. The medicine can cause people to lose a whopping…

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