Weight-loss treatment is on the verge of a dramatic shift – again | CNN

At the end of a seemingly ubiquitous commercial for telehealth company Ro, a characteristically flabbergasted Charles Barkley speaks for us all when he remarks, “Wait, you’re telling me they have a GLP-1 pill for weight loss now?” They do – and it turns out to be as wildly popular as its injectable predecessors. Just about 10 weeks after it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, the Wegovy pill is now estimated to be part of the daily regimen of about 400,000 Americans. And the field of weight-loss treatment is on the verge of even more head-spinning change. A second pill is under review at the FDA, expected to hit the market as soon as next month, and many more are in clinical trials. Some companies are testing drugs that only need to be taken once a month. And an even more powerful next generation of medicines is quickly approaching, churning out trial results – including some new ones Thursday – that leave current options in the dust in terms of efficacy. “We are entering this kind of phase two of using the GLP-1 system,” said Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor at Harvard Medical Schoo