Ozempic and Wegovy get talked about as weight loss drugs. That framing is increasingly inadequate for what GLP-1 receptor agonists appear to be doing.

The weight loss results are real and significant — patients losing 15 to 20% of body weight in clinical trials far exceeds what any previous pharmaceutical intervention achieved. But the downstream effects are where the story gets more interesting. Large-scale trials have shown meaningful reductions in cardiovascular events — heart attacks and strokes — in patients taking semaglutide, independent of weight loss effects. Separate research is showing promising signals in addiction behavior: patients reporting reduced cravings not just for food but for alcohol, nicotine, and other substances.