The changes reflect “a cultural shift” around obesity medications, said Diana Zuckerman, president of the nonprofit National Center for Health Research, which analyzes and explains health research to the public. As a result, the new guidance “seems more favorable to the drug companies.”

Packaged foods may soon have warning labels about how much sodium, saturated fats, and added sugars they contain in an effort to curb the chronic disease epidemic, which in large part is due to diet.

In a rare move, the FDA recommended a minimum of 5% weight-loss for drug developers seeking to establish the efficacy of their investigational obesity candidates.

CEO Dave Ricks said Monday that the company's GLP-1 weight-loss pill orforglipron could receive FDA approval as soon as early 2026. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Ricks said the company is expecting data on the drug before the middle of 2025,

BMI has long been falling out of favor. When the American Medical Association urged downgrading BMI in 2023, it blamed its “racist exclusion” and “historical harm.” The group also recommended measuring waist circumference as well as body composition.

New FDA draft guidance for drugmakers focuses on trial design for developing obesity treatments. Read more here.

Asians, non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics were significantly less likely than whites to use obesity-management medications to lower their weight compared with whites, new research suggests. The differences could not be fully explained by income or education level, health insurance coverage or clinical need.

An international and widely supported group of experts is pushing doctors to avoid the exclusive use of BMI to decide whether someone has obesity, alongside other major changes.

Zepbound is a dual-activating medication that combines glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) mechanisms to tackle the root causes of obesity. It suppresses appetite and reduces caloric intake, making it particularly effective for individuals whose OSA symptoms are exacerbated by excess weight.

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The Biden administration announced Friday that Ozempic, Wegovy and 13 additional drugs will now be covered under Medicare Part-D for price negotiations, the next round of negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act passed by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) proposed in February 2024 that the FDA place warning labels about the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes or obesity on foods with high saturated fat, added sugar ...