Only 30% of semaglutide initiators persist a year, EHR study finds

The wire

1. 01A medRxiv preprint using Epic Cosmos data from more than 350 US health systems found 12-month prescribing persistence of 29.9% for semaglutide and 35.9% for tirzepatide among adults with obesity and without diabetes who started in 2024.
2. 02FDA-labeled maintenance-dose attainment was 28.3% for semaglutide and 55.0% for tirzepatide; only 8.8% and 16.4% were persistent at a maintenance dose with a recorded weight at 12 months.
3. 03Documented weight loss of at least 5% reached 82.9% and 87.3% among patients completing every step of the care cascade; the study is a retrospective preprint and missing weights may bias the lower estimates.

From the source

Post-Initiation Care Patterns and Weight Loss With Semaglutide and Tirzepatide for Obesity in Clinical Practice

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026 Oct 6 · Yang H, Kim C, Ross JS et al.