A new weight-loss drug promises to offer powerful results for Americans struggling with obesity, potentially surpassing the success patients have seen with Ozempic and Wegovy.
Zepbound, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 8, is getting a lot of attention from doctors concerned about the toll many extra pounds can have on people’s health.
“We’re all extremely excited in the obesity community because it will be the most effective medication on the market,” Dr. Shauna Levy, medical director of Tulane’s Bariatric and Weight Loss Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, told NBC’s Stephanie Gosk.
The amount of weight shed with the medication approaches the weight loss seen with bariatric surgery, which is “a big deal,” added Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist who runs a weight loss clinic in Cary, North Carolina, in an interview with NBC News.
Here’s what to know about the new drug:
What is Zepbound?
The prescription drug, which patients self-inject once a week, is the same medication as Type 2 diabetes treatment Mounjaro, but in different doses to treat obesity, said Dr. Roshini Rajapaksa, a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health, on TODAY on Nov. 9.
Both drugs are made by Eli Lilly and contain the same active ingredient, tirzepatide.
“It’s not like a new medication. They just are going to re-dose, re-package, re-brand,” added NBC News medical contributor Dr. Natalie Azar on the show.
Tirzepatide works by mimicking two different hormones, GLP-1 and GIP, which the body produces after eating. The first helps curb appetite and reduce how much someone eats, while the second works to improve how the body breaks down sugar and fat, as TODAY.com previously reported.
“You’re kind of getting a double whammy effect on appetite control, which is regulated by the brain,” Rajapaksa said. “It also has some effects on insulin, so blood sugar metabolism and fat metabolism as well.”
Studies have found there’s a…
Read the full article here
