Last updated on August 19th, 2026 at 12:14 pm
Will this drug cure our obesity problem?
After being informed about hundreds of announcements of “Breakthrough” Medical treatments one has to be at least a little suspicious, considering the previous history, and on the basis of my review of this research it deserves its share of skepticism. Many of these breakthroughs that do not pan out over time have in common horrendous costs, as the one under discussion, and major flaws in the research as we shall see in the following. These breakthrough announcements also seem to have in common many scientific sounding words, the more the better, such as in the one being discussed. The drug injection is described as an FDA approved 2.4 mg/week subcutaneous dose of the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist Semaglutide for weight loss, an adjunct to a reduced calorie diet and increased activity to treat adults who have obesity or are overweight. It sounds very scientific but if the treatment proves to be effective in losing weight how much is due to the drug and how much to the low calorie diet and to the increased activity? Of course the flawed experimental design cannot tell us how much of the weight loss was due to the life-style training and how much to the drug!
The reviewer of the study reported the Semaglutide groups had a 15% to 18% weight loss over 68 weeks, although not the average weight loss in pounds which would be nice to know. However, to me the average weight loss of 15 to 18% over 68 weeks of treatment does not seem very impressive to me (as well as the expense involved in 68 injections). In any case the review reported that this new drug is substantially more effective in reducing weight than any other weight loss drug and reports that the drug’s loss of weight is comparable to the results of bariatric surgery, which cuts off major parts of the stomach and intestines. The study was reviewed by Medscape online and after reading about this UK research I wrote the following comment on the study in the comment section.
“Semaglutide plus life style training is another of dozens of examples of medicine turning pleasurable bad habits into diseases! The whole process “looks” like science and “real” medicine to the media and the general public but the major effect is horrendous costs such as in Semaglutide injections.
How about some “real” science to determine the effectiveness of Semaglutide. Let’s randomly select and subject overweight and obese patients to Semaglutide injections (plus the life-style promotion mentioned in the research) versus an equal number of sessions by psychologists teaching overweight/obese patients how to change their eating behavior, how to achieve increased exercise and help in dealing with any of the patient’s life difficulties as they become available.
My money would be on a greater health benefit of psychological behavior therapy over the “breakthrough” weight loss injections; also, the former would cost much less and result in fewer side effects than the drug! Many so called addicts change their injurious health habits without any treatment (We don’t often hear about them of course) but many cannot do it on their own and need expert guidance to achieve positive health goals. When physicians are too quick to prescribe a drug for a preventable health problem you might as well forget the idea of the patient changing their behavior, which unfortunately is the current situation in dealing with preventable health problems. If you think I am wrong here just look at TV commercial selling drugs for Type 2 diabetes. The “patients” are all happy, energetic, having fun, always eating good food and always overweight! The unspoken message to the diabetic patient is the drug will take complete care of your health problem.
In my many years of reading the health literature I have come to the opinion that physician training is almost exclusively in the bio physical sciences, I usually add as it should be because there are real diseases, and this training shapes most of healthcare and predisposes physicians to look for bio physical solutions to most health problems. This despite the fact that our major diseases are at least partly or wholly preventable with changes in our behavior and the majority of our health problems arise from non-organic causes.
Medical care has paid lip service to prevention but it is time to get serious about it but to achieve this and improved and affordable healthcare the industry will require major changes and shifts of power. As one who has spent his whole career in healthcare at many levels, including managed care, I believe the only entity that has any chance in bringing about major changes in health delivery are private and governmental self-insured health plans. These entities will have to re-design their health plans and insure that health problems are treated comprehensively (treating organic and psycho social factors) and that each health provider, including physicians, must be well trained and competent in the health service to receive payment.