All About Wegovy for Weight Loss

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hi. Today we're going to talk about another form of semaglutide. This form is called Wegovy, and it's indicated for weight loss in people with or without diabetes. It's a higher dose than we've used before — 2.4 mg weekly. It has been FDA-approved and is coming on the market soon.

The indications, based on the package insert, are a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m² or a BMI ≥ 27 kg/m² with one weight-related comorbid condition such as diabetes. Like the other GLP-1 receptor agonists, it has a black box warning for medullary thyroid carcinoma, and it should not be used in patients with a personal or family history of multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN) syndrome.

I read through the package insert in its entirety, and there wasn't much that caught my eye. But the one thing we need to be aware of is that there was an increase in rates of acute gallbladder disease. This was probably because of the weight loss that we saw, but it's something to know.

In clinical trials, cholelithiasis was reported by 1.6% of those taking semaglutide and 0.7% of those taking placebo. And in terms of cholecystitisthe rates were 0.6% with the higher dose of semaglutide vs 0.2% with placebo. These are relatively low rates, but they can certainly occur. There is also a concern about pancreatitis, so know that these can occur and you need to watch out for them if a patient has signs or symptoms of either.