An Overview of Existing and Emerging Weight-Loss Drugs to Target Obesity-Related Complications: Insights from Clinical Trials

Overview

Journal Biomol Ther (Seoul)

Specialty Pharmacology

Date 2024 Dec 19

PMID 39696983

Authors

Mi Kyung Kim

Hye Soon Kim

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Obesity requires treatment as it is associated with health problems such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers, which increase mortality rates. Achieving sufficient weight loss to reduce obesity-related diseases requires a variety of interventions, including comprehensive lifestyle modification of diet and exercise, change in behavior, anti-obesity medications, and surgery. To date, anti-obesity agents with various mechanisms of action have been developed, and mostly reduce energy intake, resulting in weight loss of about 5% to 10% compared to baseline. Recently developed drugs and those currently under development have been shown to reduce body weight by more than 10% and are expected to reduce obesity-related complications. This article summarizes existing and emerging anti-obesity medications, with a particular focus on those evaluated in clinical trials.

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