A winner has emerged in the ongoing battle of the bulge: Mounjaro.
Overweight or obese adults are three times more likely to shed 15% of their body weight on Mounjaro than Ozempic, according to a study published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
“To our knowledge, this study represents the first clinical comparative effectiveness study of tirzepatide and semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity,” researchers from the healthcare analytics firm Truveta wrote in their findings.
Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, mimics GLP-1, a hormone the body naturally produces after eating, so the user feels fuller for longer.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Ozempic in December 2017 to treat Type 2 diabetes. The agency OK’d Wegovy in June 2021 for adult weight loss.
Tirzepatide — marketed by Eli Lilly as Mounjaro and Zepbound — mimics GLP-1 and GIP, another appetite-suppressing hormone, which may be why it’s been shown to spur greater, sustained weight loss than semaglutide.
The FDA approved Mounjaro to treat Type 2 diabetes in May 2022 and Zepbound for adult weight loss in November 2023.
The authors of the latest study noted that patients with Type 2 diabetes tend to lose more weight with Mounjaro than Ozempic — this research focuses on adults who are overweight or obese.
The researchers analyzed the weight loss of more than 18,000 adults who took Mounjaro or Ozempic between May 2022 and September 2023.
By three months, Mounjaro patients shed 5.9% of their body weight versus 3.6% for those on Ozempic. At six months, the mean weight loss was 10.1% on Mounjaro and 5.8% on Ozempic.
At the end of the first year, Mounjaro users had dropped 15.3% of their body weight, while Ozempic patients lost 8.3%.
The Post reached out to reps for Lilly and Novo Nordisk for comment.
At the same time, the researchers didn’t notice major differences in gastrointestinal troubles — like incidences of stomach virus and swelling of the pancreas — between the Mounjaro and Ozempic groups.
The study authors noted that most of the patients in their study discontinued the medicine, which affected their weight loss.
They also reported larger weight loss in people without Type 2 diabetes than those with the chronic condition. Researchers are unsure why there was a difference but speculated it may be due to how these patients partake in other activities to lose weight.
“Additional research is needed to understand the complex relationships between motivations and outcomes for patients with and without” Type 2 diabetes, the researchers wrote.
Future studies should also evaluate Mounjaro and Ozempic on other key markers, such as their ability to reduce the risk of heart attacks, the study authors said.
