Novo Nordisk Obesity Shot Tied to Greater Weight Loss at Lower Doses

Novo Nordisk's next-generation obesity shot, CagriSema, helped patients lose weight in large studies, despite only about three-quarters of the patients ever making it to the highest dose.

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CHICAGO — Surprisingly, patients who chose to stick with a lower dose lost more weight on average.

The studies allowed patients to stop at lower doses of the drug, an unusual option in a trial.

Researchers presenting new data on June 22 at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) meeting in Chicago said the findings offer clues as to how the drug would be used in real life.

“There is a group of people who respond very well to this medicine,” said Dr. Timothy Garvey, director of the Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who helped lead the trials.

“Some patients can be really effectively treated” without hitting the highest dose, Dr. Garvey said in an interview.

Investigators were allowed to keep people on lower doses to manage side effects or if they were already losing enough weight. It is unclear why some patients did better, though Dr. Garvey noted that they tended to have a lower body mass index at the start of the trial. “We need to study that a little more,” he said.