Semaglutide vs Tirzepatide for Weight Loss in Persons with Obesity: Daily Dose

_{©New Africa/AdobeStock}

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On July 8, 2024, we reported on findings from a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that compared on-treatment weight loss and rates of gastrointestinal adverse events (AEs) among adults with overweight or obesity receiving tirzepatide or semaglutide.

The study

Researchers conducted the cohort study of adults with overweight or obesity receiving semaglutide or tirzepatide between May 2022 and September 2023. Participants were identified through electronic health record data collected by Truveta, an organization that provides access to continuously updated and linked electronic health record data from a collective of US health care systems.

Participants had a baseline weight measurement available within 60 days of the first dispense of GLP-1RA, and to have no prior exposure to GLP-1 RA medications.

The primary outcome was on-treatment weight change through November 2023. Treatment groups were balanced on measured variables using propensity scores. Study follow-up continued until treatment was discontinued, a medication switch was made, or the last health care encounter or end of the study on November 3, 2023.

The findings

Of an original group of 41 222 adults who met study criteria, the final cohort numbered 18 366 participants who were matched by propensity score (9193 using tirzepatide, 9192 using semaglutide).

Compared to participants in the semaglutide group, those in the tirzepatide group were significantly more likely to reach weight loss of greater than 5% (1.8 times), greater than 10% (2.5 times), and greater than 15% (3.2 times) over the study period. Also, on-treatment changes in weight for the tirzepatide-treated group were larger at 3, 6, and 12 months of follow-up compared to those who received semaglutide.

Authors' comment

"Future work is needed to compare the effect of tirzepatide and semaglutide on other key end points (eg, reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events)."

Click here for more details.