May 12, 2025 – Turns out, two really is better than one – at least when it comes to weight loss drugs.
In the first head-to-head trial of its kind, people with obesity who took tirzepatide (sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound) lost more weight and inches from their waist than those who took semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy).
Semaglutide is a GLP-1 agonist that boosts the hunger-suppressing hormone GLP-1. Tirzepatide is a dual agonist, targeting both GLP-1 and GIP. That means it acts on two hormone pathways, while semaglutide works on one.
"We've learnt over the past 20 years or so that you can overcome the plateau effect with obesity drugs if you can add in drugs with mechanisms that are completely different," said Louis J. Aronne, MD, who led the study and is also the director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. "This is exactly what we see here."
