Weight Loss: Which Is Better, Semaglutide or Tirzepatide?

Semaglutide versus Tirzepatide Both are chronic weight loss medications. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved versions of these drugs for certain eligible people.

However, Research is ongoing, including how these drugs compare. Researchers in the current study wanted to compare the effectiveness of semaglutide and tirzepatide, which are labeled for type 2 diabetes. They want to know which injection causes more weight loss.

This research was a propensity-matched cohort study involving overweight or obese new tirzepatide or semaglutide users.

Researchers collected data through electronic health records and linked third-party data. The participants were three months; They looked at changes in body weight experienced at six months and a year.

in all The researchers included 18,386 participants in a propensity score-matched cohort. In this number, 52% of the group had type 2 diabetes, and the average age of the participants was 52. The median follow-up time with participants was 165 days, and more than 50% of participants discontinued each medication. The researchers noted the number of gastrointestinal adverse events that occurred among the participants and found that the risk was similar for both drug groups.

Overall, the study found that tirzepatide was more effective in helping participants lose weight. About 82% of participants taking tirzepatide experienced a weight loss of 5% or more. In comparison, only 66.5% of participants taking semaglutide achieved this weight loss.

Study author Patricia Rodriguez, PhD, MPH, Principal Applied Scientist at Truveta; MNT:

“Patients on tirzepatide were 3 times more likely to lose 10 percent weight at one year compared to patients on semaglutide. Our study found that overall, patients without type 2 diabetes experienced more weight loss than patients with type 2 diabetes, but tirzepatide was more effective than semaglutide in both groups.”

Study author Nick Stucky, MD, PhD, vice president of Truveta Research and an infectious disease physician at Providence Portland Medical Center, commented on the study. Medical news today

“Although tirzepatide was significantly more effective than semaglutide, we found that patients on both regimens experienced significant weight loss and no difference in the risk of GI adverse events.”

“In addition to efficiency; Factors such as drug availability and insurance coverage will play a role in deciding which drug to start. Therefore, “Providers should evaluate these findings along with other considerations as they evaluate what options may be best for their individual patients,” he said.

This research has limitations. for example, About 77% of the propensity-matched group were white, and 70% were women; This means that future studies may include more differences between participants. The geographic distribution of the sample is not representative of the United States population, so the results cannot be generalized.

The study is also limited by the use of clinical electronic health record data, which may lead to time lags and underreporting of adverse events.

The researchers limited their analysis to participants who had regular interactions with the health care system in the year before taking their injectable weight-loss drug. The authors acknowledge that medication interruptions during the study may have led to some substitutions, which could have affected the results.

There is also some risk for unmeasured confounding and unmeasured variables; Factors such as bias due to quantitative differences; Using brand as a proxy for target volume and missing data may bias the results.

Because the researchers noticed the participants losing weight; This may lead to information censorship and motivation for participants to discontinue or change medications, the researchers note. Because the study only focused on drugs labeled for type-2 diabetes, future research may look at drugs specifically labeled for weight loss.

There are also differences in weight loss between people with and without type 2 diabetes, so more research could look at differences between these groups, such as engagement in other weight loss activities and other underlying factors.

More than half of the participants eventually discontinued the medication, and this number was slightly higher for participants taking tirzepatide.

Rodriguez noted areas of further research. Medical news today:

“There is still much to learn about this class of drugs, including other conditions, long-term clinical outcomes, barriers to equitable access, effects of discontinuation, trends in reintroduction, how to be most effective (pharmacodynamics), and more.”

“In fact, we look at these trends over time and continue to explore trends in prescribing and dispensing in our quarterly GLP-1 monitoring report, which provides some insight into access and availability,” she continued.

A final summary from Rodriguez will be available on their company blog.”[within] The next month or so” The full analysis was then published on the preprint server MedRxviv.

In addition, There are also challenges regarding the differences between semaglutide and trizepatide. Mir Ali MD Mir Ali, board-certified bariatric surgeon and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center; MNT:

“This study confirms what has been found in other studies comparing the two drugs. If clinically feasible, tirzepatide is the preferred drug for weight loss. It works on two receptors as opposed to the one that semaglutide affects. However, Getting these drugs covered by insurance is a challenge and appears to be worse for tirzepatide. Also, tirzepatide is more expensive.

You may be overweight or obese. increase the risk type 2 diabetes; For health conditions such as high blood pressure and certain cancers.

Weight management Weight loss can involve many strategies, such as physical activity and dietary changes. Individuals can gain insight by seeking guidance from multiple health professionals.

People interested in using weight loss drugs such as semaglutide and trizepatide can ask their doctors about the suitability of these treatments for them.

“The first step in getting these medications for weight loss is to see a person with their primary care physician. Their doctor can prescribe the right medicine for them. You can determine the benefits and risks and whether they meet the insurance criteria. They can contact their insurance company directly to ascertain the coverage and benefits,” says Ali.