'Game changer' weight loss shot showing success in clinical trials

A weight loss shot has shown initial success in clinical trials conducted by the University of Alabama.

"We have not seen this degree of weight loss with any previous medication," Dr. Timothy Garvey, the study's lead author, said, per the New York Post.

"More than 50% of trial participants are losing 15% of their body weight, and anywhere between a third and 40% of participants are losing 20% of their body weight," he continued.

The study tested the effects of weekly injections with semaglutide and revealed the potential of such treatment to cut diabetes risk in half, per the outlet.

Garvey highlighted that the apparent breakthrough would help to both combat obesity and challenge public perception of the problem, saying "[m]any people among the lay public and many health-care professionals as well think about obesity primarily as a lifestyle choice, even today, despite our scientific understanding of obesity as a disease."

Roughly 42% of Americans were obese as of 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Garvey hailed the treatment as a "game changer in obesity medicine" and noted that the results were "beginning to close the gap with bariatric surgery" in combating obesity, per the Post.