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Zepbound tops Wegovy for weight loss in first head-to-head study comparing the drugs

By
Sara Moniuszko
Reporter, Lifestyle & Wellness
Sara Moniuszko is a health and lifestyle reporter at CBSNews.com. Previously, she wrote for USA Today, where she was selected to help launch the newspaper's wellness vertical. She now covers breaking and trending news for CBS News' HealthWatch.
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Sara Moniuszko

/ CBS News

Those who take tirzepatide, the drug sold as Zepbound and Mounjaro, could lose more weight than those who take semaglutide, known as Ozempic and Wegovy, according to new research. 

A study, published Sunday in the , found tirzepatide users lost about 20% of their body weight, whereas those on semaglutide lost about 14% over a 72-week period. 

"That translates to about a difference of eight pounds on average between the two drugs," Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said on "CBS Mornings" Monday.

Notably, the study was , the maker of tirzepatide.

"So you always need to take that with a grain of salt," Gounder said, adding later on "CBS Mornings Plus" that the research "does look legit, and we have seen hints of this in other studies."

In an emailed statement to CBS News Monday, a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, said both Wegovy and Zepbound have demonstrated clinically significant weight reduction in clinical trial programs.

The statement also said, in part, that "robust data" supporting Wegovy's "meaningful and unique benefits continue to grow" and that in addition to "offering significant and sustained weight loss," Wegovy is "the only obesity medicine approved to reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in adults with overweight or obesity and known heart disease backed by real-world evidence."

Gounder also said the drugs aren't just about weight loss, and pointed to additional health benefits.

"We're seeing people's blood pressure come down, their diabetes numbers, their blood sugars improve, their cholesterol numbers improve," she said. "So this is not just the weight loss, it's also health indicators."

The price of these drugs, however, remains high. On average, they can cost over $1,000 out of pocket. If ordered through the drugmakers directly, you may be able to pay less than $500 out of pocket. Overall, only one in four insurance companies cover these medications, Gounder said.

"Big picture, there's still a lot that needs to be done on insurance coverage," she said. "There was a proposal under Biden to expand coverage to these drugs under Medicare, the Trump administration pulled back on that, and a lot of, as I said, private insurance companies still don't cover these medications for obesity."

Edited by Sarah Lynch Baldwin

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