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A study published in JAMA Pediatrics looks at the safety of weight loss drugs in children and adolescents with obesity or type 2 diabetes.
Prof Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine/Honorary Consultant, University of Glasgow, said:
“This paper is of only modest interest as although obesity levels are rising fastest in younger people, the present meta-analysis looks predominantly at trials with older GLP-1RAs known to give much lower weight loss than higher doses of semaglutide and tirzepatide, the two most recent licensed drugs of most interest to paediatricians. There are ongoing trials with these newer agents in children with type 2 diabetes and they are clearly needed as the weight loss achieved with older medicines, as shown in this meta-analysis, is rather modest, though the reported safety reports thus far are reassuring. That said, we need more safety assessments for newer medicines including impacts on growth and puberty and to consider for how long such drugs are needed. It should be noted that we cannot solve childhood obesity by drugs alone – prevention by changing the obesogenic environment is the key, but incredibly hard to do as no country has really solved this issue. “
‘Efficacy and Safety of GLP-1 RAs in Children and Adolescents With Obesity or Type 2 Diabetes’ by Kotecha et al. was published in JAMA Pediatrics at 16:00 UK time on Monday 15 September.
DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.3243
Declared interests
Prof Naveed Sattar: “NS has consulted for and/or received speaker honoraria from Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie, Afimmune, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Carmot Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Hanmi Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, Menarini-Ricerche, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Metsera, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Roche; and received grant support paid to his University from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, and Roche. No shares in any medical areas.”