Popular weight loss drug cuts severe knee pain almost in half

The popular obesity drug is showing promise in easing knee pain, a new study finds. The New England Journal of Medicine just published a big study showing semaglutide works way better than placebo pills for knee pain.

They looked at 407 overweight people with bad knees for over a year. People taking the real drug said their pain dropped by about 42 points out of 100. The placebo group only felt about 28 points better.

“They were really in pain,” said Dr. Henning Bliddal, the principal investigator for the study and a rheumatologist at Copenhagen University Hospital. “They can’t exercise. You are trapped with knees like this.”

Most people in the study were women around 56 years old, quite heavy at a BMI over 40. When they started, their knee pain was brutal - averaging 71 out of 100.

Semaglutide helps people lose weight and is sold as Ozempic and Wegovy. People on the real drug lost about 14% of their weight, while the placebo group only dropped 3%.

Dr. Bob Carter, deputy director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases was blown away by what he saw. He said, “The magnitude of the improvement is of a scope we haven’t seen before with a drug,” 

About one in five people over 45 get knee arthritis, especially if they're carrying extra pounds.

Right now, doctors mostly give out Tylenol or do knee replacements when it gets really bad. This drug might help knee arthritis in two ways - less weight on joints and less inflammation.

Dr. David T. Felson, an arthritis expert and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine thinks this is huge, saying it beats everything except surgery.

The major downside of this drug is that it is very expensive. Dr. Carter hopes cheaper options will come once they figure out how it works.

Novo Nordisk, who makes the drug, ran the study. More research is needed to be sure it really works and is safe long-term for knee arthritis.