Adjunctive semaglutide yields additional weight loss in teens with obesity

Once-weekly treatment with semaglutide, when administered with lifestyle intervention, leads to greater reduction in body mass index (BMI) among adolescents with obesity as compared with lifestyle intervention alone, as shown in the STEP TEENS study.

STEP TEENS included 201 children aged 12–17 years with obesity (BMI in the ≥95th percentile) or with overweight (BMI in the ≥85th percentile) and at least one weight-related coexisting condition. They were randomized to receive once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide at a dose of 2.4 mg or placebo for 68 weeks, in addition to lifestyle intervention.

A total of 180 (90 percent) children completed treatment, and all but one had obesity. At week 68, the primary endpoint of the percentage change in BMI from baseline was significantly greater with semaglutide than with placebo (−16.1 percent vs 0.6 percent; estimated difference, −16.7 percentage points, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], −20.3 to −13.2; p<0.001).

Furthermore, 73 percent of the children who received semaglutide achieved a weight loss of ≥5 percent as compared with only 18 percent of those who received placebo (estimated odds ratio, 14.0, 95 percent CI, 6.3–31.0; p<0.001). Likewise, reductions in body weight and improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors (waist circumference, glycated haemoglobin, lipids [except high-density lipoprotein cholesterol], and alanine aminotransferase) were more favourable with semaglutide.

However, semaglutide- vs placebo-treated children had a higher frequency of gastrointestinal adverse events (62 percent vs 42 percent). Five children (4 percent) in the semaglutide group had cholelithiasis, while 15 (11 percent) developed serious adverse events; the respective safety outcomes were reported in zero and six children in the placebo group.