New Delhi: Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide helped reduce obesity in children aged 6 to under 12 in a late-stage trial, with some children moving below the obesity threshold after 68 weeks of treatment, the Danish drugmaker said Monday.
The STEP Young trial tested once-weekly semaglutide, a GLP-1 drug that mimics a natural hormone involved in regulating blood sugar and appetite, in 165 children with obesity.
All participants also followed a reduced-calorie diet and were encouraged to increase physical activity, the company said in a statement.
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After 68 weeks, 40.4 percent of children who received semaglutide were no longer classified as having obesity, compared with none of those who received a placebo.
The trial showed a greater reduction in body mass index, or BMI, among children given semaglutide compared with those given placebo.
“Childhood obesity is particularly concerning due to both immediate and enduring impacts on health, including a strong predilection to adult obesity and increased risk for the early emergence of obesity-related complications,” said Ania M. Jastreboff, professor of medicine and paediatrics at Yale University and director of the Yale Obesity Research Center, according to the report.
She said most children in the STEP Young trial had severe class II or III obesity when they entered the study.
In children, obesity is measured using age- and sex-specific BMI growth charts because they are still growing.
A child is considered to have obesity if their BMI is at or above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex. More severe obesity is classified as class II when BMI is at least 120 percent of that level, and class III when it is at least 140 percent.
GLP-1 drugs have become widely used to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes, particularly in adults. Semaglutide is sold by Novo Nordisk as Wegovy for obesity and Ozempic for type 2 diabetes.
A recent study found that in the US, prescriptions for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs among children under 12 have risen more than 300-fold since 2019, despite the drugs not being approved for that age group.
Novo Nordisk said the safety and tolerability of semaglutide in the trial were consistent with earlier studies in adults and adolescents. It reported no new safety concerns and said there were no concerns related to growth or puberty.
The company cited estimates that 177 million children aged 5 to 19 were living with obesity in 2025, with that number expected to rise to 228 million by 2040.
The detailed results from the trial will be presented at the ObesityWeek meeting in Washington DC in November, the company said.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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