The active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s popular weight loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, semaglutide, may also help treat the abnormal collections of fat that often accompany infection with the human immunodeficiency virus, new research suggests.
Patients with HIV-associated lipo hypertrophy accumulate fat in the abdomen, upper back, and under the skin substantially increasing their risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other metabolic illnesses.
In a mid-stage trial, 108 overweight or obese patients with HIV lipo hypertrophy but without diabetes were randomly assigned to receive once-weekly injections of semaglutide or a placebo.
Researchers reported that after 32 weeks, patients treated with semaglutide “showed substantial decreases” in their abnormal fat deposits in The Lancet Diabetes.
Side effects were mostly mild, but two patients taking semaglutide developed gallbladder complications that may have been related to the drug.
The drug's “potential for causing potentially serious side effects requires additional testing in trials using higher doses and longer treatment duration,” the researchers said.
An editorial published with the report said, “semaglutide has the potential to be an important drug to treat HIV-associated lipo hypertrophy.”