Study: Type 2 diabetes medication Mounjaro is better than Ozempic for weight loss
Researchers discovered that patients using Mounjaro had "significantly larger reductions in body weight" than those on Ozempic.
The weight loss impact of the Type 2 diabetes medication Mounjaro significantly surpasses that of Ozempic, an analysis shows.
Truveta Research conducted a large-scale study of the competitive drugs and discovered that patients using Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro were three times more likely to drop 15% of their body weight than those on Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, People reported.
Patients taking Mounjaro were also six times more likely to lose 10% of their body weight and 1.8 times more likely to lose 5% than those on Ozempic.
“We’ve been able to compare the head-to-head efficacy of these two important medications for weight loss in advance of randomized clinical trials,” said study author Nick Stucky, vice president of Truveta Research. “This study can help to inform patient care and outcomes today, not months from now.”
The research, published Nov. 22 but not yet peer-reviewed, looked at 18,386 adult patients who were overweight or obese and used Mounjaro or Ozempic between May 2022 and September 2023. It showed that those on Mounjaro had “significantly larger reductions in body weight.”
Mounjaro is the brand name for tirzepatide, which suppresses hunger and enhances how the body breaks down sugar and fat. The medicine, administered by injection in the thigh, stomach or arm and FDA-approved to treat Type 2 diabetes, has been used by many people off-label for weight reduction.
Ozempic, taken in the same way for the same reason, works in the brain to impact satiety. A brand name for semaglutide, its users, like Mounjaro’s, are mainly Type 2 diabetics.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which were not involved in the study, have other versions of the medications.
Novo Nordisk owns Wegovy, which was approved by the FDA for obesity in 2021, and Eli Lilly has Zepbound, greenlit for weight loss this month.
“Because tirzepatide was only approved by the FDA in mid-2022 for Type 2 diabetes,” noted Tyler Gluckman, Providence Health cardiologist and study co-author, “the ability to rigorously analyze its use (on- and off-label) for a broad population of patients with overweight and obesity, not just a subset captured in insurance databases, has the power to greatly improve our understanding of how these agents are being used in everyday practice and the effect they’re having.”
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