Read the result with its limits
A percentage is easier to understand when you know who was studied and what they received.
The large weight study tested the combination
The journal report for REDEFINE 1 covers 3,417 adults without diabetes. They had obesity or overweight, the higher and lower weight ranges used to describe excess weight for a person's height.Open the journal study record
Over 68 weeks, the CagriSema group lost an average of 20.4% of their starting weight. The placebo group lost 3.0%. Placebo was a dummy shot with no study drug.
These are calculated averages using study data to estimate weight change for the whole starting group. People who stopped taking treatment still count in that group.
People in the study also had regular visits and help with eating and activity. Novo Nordisk, the drug developer, paid for the study.
A second calculation estimated weight loss if everyone had kept taking CagriSema. This gave 22.7%. It uses that assumption about continuing treatment.
Neither estimate promises the same weight change for an individual.
Cagrilintide alone had a different result
In REDEFINE 1, the group taking only cagrilintide lost an average of 11.5% of their starting weight. The group taking only semaglutide (Wegovy, Ozempic) lost 14.9%. These numbers came from the drug developer's filed report.Read the filed study announcement
These averages count everyone who started, too. They use the same calculation as the CagriSema result of 20.4% and the dummy-shot result of 3.0% above.
The study's main test compared CagriSema with the dummy shot. Fewer people took each medicine alone. The numbers for those smaller groups come from the company report.
Keep that source and the smaller groups in mind when judging a headline about either medicine alone.
When reading a headline, match the number to the exact treatment. Do not attach a combination result to cagrilintide alone.
The study in diabetes asked a separate question
REDEFINE 2 studied 1,206 adults with excess weight and type 2 diabetes for 68 weeks. Type 2 diabetes is a form of diabetes, a condition involving high blood sugar.
The journal reported average weight loss of 13.7% in the CagriSema group. In the dummy-shot group, the average was 3.4%. These calculated averages count everyone who started.Open the diabetes study record
Novo Nordisk paid for this study too. These people had diabetes; the people in REDEFINE 1 did not.
Use the study that matches the question. Comparing totals from separate trials does not give a personal forecast.
Longer-term answers are still missing
As of September 28, 2026, the CagriSema study of heart attacks and strokes was still running.
The records reviewed then did not establish what happens to weight after stopping CagriSema.
Useful questions are: What is known beyond weight change? What would the plan be if treatment did not suit me?
Read what the studies found about side effects