A sizable percentage of people using Novo (NVO) and Lilly’s (LLY) GLP-1 drugs may be able to sustain their weight loss effects even months after discontinuing the popular obesity drugs, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing real-world data compiled by analytics firm nference.
The analysis was based on 14M doctors’ notes and 15M clinical data entries generated from 135K patients who had received GLP-1 care at a wide network of U.S. academic clinical facilities.
The review analyzed nearly 37.5K and 18K patients who had received Novo’s (NVO) semaglutide and Lilly’s (LLY) tirzepatide, marketed as Wegovy and Zepbound for weight loss, respectively.
Out of 1,615 who discontinued tirzepatide use, nearly 28% had regained the lost weight after six months, while the percentage who managed to maintain their weight loss and who continued to lose weight stood at 36% each.
As for 2,567 semaglutide users who had discontinued, 33% regained weight after six months, while 32% managed to avoid weight gain, and 35% continued to lose weight, according to the findings, which are yet to undergo peer review.
“The implication of our real-world evidence is not that rebound risk is negligible, but rather that durability is achievable in routine care,” nference Chief Scientific Officer Venky Soundararajan said.
There was a 0% median weight change six months post GLP-1 discontinuation, which, according to Soundararajan, “seems to suggest the typical patient has stabilized” at that point.
The nference data contrast with a 2022 Novo-sponsored study, which indicated that patients regained two-thirds of their lost weight on average a year after discontinuing a GLP-1 like Wegovy. The Danish drugmaker later suggested that the timeline to regain weight could take up to five years.