18 May 2023 • Nearly half of children who were assigned the semaglutide jab lost enough weight to no longer be classed as clinically obese, according to recent research. The study report says giving semaglutide once a week gave ‘historically unprecedented’ results. The study, led by Dr Aaron Kelly, Co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine, University of Minnesota, looked at 201 adolescents who were classed as clinically obese.

Alongside receiving matching healthy lifestyle counselling, one group of 134 children aged between 12 and 18 received one dose of 2.4mg of semaglutide a week across 68 weeks, while 67 children received a placebo across the same period of time. The study’s results, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Dublin, found that while 12% of adolescents who were taking the placebo were able to lose enough weight to no longer be classed as clinically obese, for those who were assigned semaglutide, almost 45% of them were able to drop below the clinical definition for obesity.

By the end of the study, almost three-quarters (74%) of children assigned semaglutide had an improvement of at least one BMI category, compared with just under a fifth (19%) on the placebo. “These results underscore the high degree of clinical effectiveness of semaglutide in adolescents with obesity,” the report concluded.

Source: The Guardian | Read full story