Prof Garron Dodd shares weight-loss drug expertise as data reveals long-term realities

Drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro need to be taken for life or the health benefits are lost

New research shows weight-loss drugs need to be approached with long-term use in mind to maintain their health benefits.

Professor Garron Dodd spoke to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald’s Wendy Tuohy about findings – led by Oxford University researchers and published in the British Medical Journal – showing the heart and metabolic improvements from GLP-1 drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are lost when people stop taking medication.

The systematic review and meta-analysis examined 37 studies involving 9,341 participants, who were monitored over time. Researchers found stopping weight-management medication was followed by rapid weight regain and reversal of heart health markers. Weight returned faster after medication than after behavioural weight-management programs.

Professor Dodd, Head of the Metabolic Neuroscience Research Laboratory in the Department of Anatomy & Physiology, said that while the study reiterates how GLP-1 drugs have revolutionised obesity and type 2 diabetes treatmet, it is also a reminder they are not a “silver bullet”.

“We must not be deflated [by the new finding]. If anything, it opens up huge possibilities: now the world is looking at obesity therapeutics and where it’s going next, there is arguably no more exciting area in science right now,” he said.

Future research could reveal why the body works to maintain weight and could produce more sustainable combination treatments. These interventions could “reshape how the brain interprets energy balance, not just how much people eat,” Professor Dodd said.

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