What's next for anti-obesity and weight loss drugs?

Kara L. Marlatt, PhD, MPH sat down with Contemporary OB/GYN® after her presentation at the North American Menopause Society on treating weight gain in menopause. Marlatt is an assistant professor of research at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA and specializes in healthy aging and metabolism.

Semaglutide

• 2.4-mg weekly subcutaneous injection
• 15-17% weight loss

Tirzepatide

• 15% to 17% weight loss

Cagrilintide + semaglutide

• Cagrilintide is an amylin analog and it's combined with semaglutide
• Anywhere from 20% to 25% weight loss

Bimagrumab

"There's also an exciting drug that's in Phase 2 trials that could also be an improvement. What those studies are showing so far is that with weight loss, there's actually a loss in fat mass. But more importantly, there's a retention, or there's a gain in fat-free mass. And so really, I think these newer cutting-edge drugs will do that very thing.

So with weight loss, you're not going to see the 75% fat mass loss, but you're also going to get the 25% fat free mass loss too. Instead, it's flipping. It's changing the game in that now you're not only going to be losing fat mass, but you might actually gain fat free mass, and so that's really good for just aging in general.

Those are the ones that are the most exciting ones that are coming down the pipeline that people should be looking for. I think the biggest thing is that physicians and patient-facing practitioners should really be patient, but very optimistic, that these drugs will become more readily available. It's really going to bridge this gap between what lifestyle intervention can do and what bariatric surgery can do. We're really getting closer to getting to what bariatric surgery can do."