The weight loss drug Mounjaro went up against Wegovy in a test to see how effective they were for people wanting to shed the pounds, and one of them came out as the clear winner.
It seems as though weight loss drugs are all the rage at the moment, not least because obesity is a genuinely major problem for people’s health and the jabs actually do work.
If you get prescribed one on the NHS at the moment, it’s likely to be Wegovy, the semaglutide based jab from Novo Nordisk – the same company that makes Ozempic. However, Ozempic is intended solely for people with Type-2 diabetes, and Wegovy is far more effective at convincing your body it has had enough to eat so that’s the one you’d get.
Meanwhile, the tirzepatide-based jab called Mounjaro is an approaching competitor as it is almost ready to be rolled out by the NHS.
So which is better? There’s only one way to find out.
Mounjaro is coming to the NHS (Peter Dazeley via Getty Images)
The Mounjaro rollout
The weight loss drug is beginning a ‘phased rollout’ across England and Wales starting from next week, having been given the green light by the NHS to be prescribed for obesity back in December last year.
At present, Mounjaro is only available on prescription from NHS Scotland, though some people have also been provided it through specialist weight loss clinics, but it won’t be long before that changes.
The rollout commences on Monday, 23 June, though anyone getting a prescription will need to meet a fairly strict criteria in order to get a Mounjaro jab.
According to Oxford Online Pharmacy, this criteria could include people who:
• Have a BMI of 40 or above and at least four other health conditions
• Have a BMI of 35-39.9 and at least four other health conditions
• People with a BMI of 40 and three health conditions
These eligible health conditions include ‘type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or sleep apnoea’.
Up to 220,000 people could be prescribed Mounjaro over the next three years.
The drug will be in short supply as there’s expected to be high demand on the rollout (Montinique Monroe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
What were the trial results?
We should note that this trial was conducted by Eli Lilly, the maker of Mounjaro, and their weight loss drug came out on top.
750 obese people with an average weight of 113kg were asked to take the highest dose they could tolerate over the course of 72 weeks.
The results showed that 32 percent of people taking Mounjaro lost a quarter of their body weight during that 72 week period, compared to 16 percent of people on Wegovy
A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk (the manufacturers of Wegovy) told LADbible in a statement: “This study compared the maximum tolerated dose of tirzepatide, a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist at 10mg and 15 mg, to semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist at 1.7mg and 2.4mg. 2.4mg is currently the highest approved dose for Wegovy® ▼ (semaglutide injection).
“In this study the amount of weight loss shown for Wegovy® was lower than the amount showed in Novo Nordisk’s registry studies for the medicine, so we are not certain about the study’s methodology.
“We believe that treating obesity is about more than just a number on a scale and Wegovy® is the only GLP-1 obesity medication approved to prevent major cardiovascular events such as cardiovascular death, heart attack, and stroke and thereby potentially save and prolong lives.”
Mounjaro came out ahead of Wegovy, though Novo Nordisk disputed the results (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
What have GPs warned?
They’ve said that despite the expected wave of demand for weight loss drugs, many people hoping to get a prescription will be turned away disappointed.
As The Sun reported, GPs have been saying that once the rollout starts the jabs will be ‘offered to those with the highest medical need only’ as ‘NHS provision won’t meet demand straight away’.
There may be a huge amount of people who rush to get Mounjaro when it’s available but many of them will have to face up to the fact that there are likely to be others ahead of them in the queue.
LADbible has contacted Mounjaro’s manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company for comment.