A prospective study published in Obesity Research & Clinical Practice reports weight and BMI reductions in adolescents with obesity treated with liraglutide across 14 hospitals and clinics in Taiwan. The researchers describe it as a real-world evaluation of safety and effectiveness rather than a controlled trial.

Liraglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, one of the injectable drug class that also includes semaglutide (sold as Ozempic and Wegovy). The authors note that pediatric obesity is linked to many metabolic complications and has limited treatment options, which is the gap this study was designed to look at.

Who was enrolled

The study (NCT06283641) ran from February 2024 to March 2025 and assessed participants at baseline, week 13 and week 26. Among 41 participants, 22 (53.7%) were male, with a mean age of 13.9 years, mean body weight of 88.5 kg and mean BMI of 33.4 kg/m2.

Nineteen of the 41 (46.3%) had a medical history of hepatic impairment, which is a notable feature of this cohort and worth holding in mind when reading the safety numbers. Mean daily dose was 1.4 mg/day and mean maximum dose 1.8 mg/day over an average of 128.3 days, with 14.4% escalating to 3.0 mg/day.

Key results

At week 13, mean losses were 2.7 kg in body weight (p = 0.0003), 1.3 kg/m2 in BMI (p < 0.0001) and 0.2 in BMI standard deviation score (p < 0.0001). At week 26, the corresponding mean losses were 4.4 kg (p = 0.0015), 1.9 kg/m2 (p = 0.0004) and 0.4 (p < 0.0001).

On safety, adverse events occurred in 19.5% of participants (8 of 41) and were all described as mild, while adverse drug reactions occurred in 9.8% (4 of 41, 6 events). Gastrointestinal events were the most frequent, followed by injection site-related events, and no participant discontinued because of intolerance.

Limitations

Forty-one participants is small, and there was no placebo or comparison group, so the observed changes cannot be separated from diet, growth or anything else happening over six months. Follow-up stopped at week 26, and nearly half the cohort had a history of hepatic impairment, which makes this a specific population rather than adolescents with obesity generally.

The authors frame their conclusion narrowly: at doses below 3.0 mg/day, liraglutide was well-tolerated and reductions were observed. That is a deliberately modest claim, and the study design does not support a stronger one.

Bottom line

What the paper adds is real-world tolerability data in a group the trials have largely skipped, and the zero-discontinuation figure is the most interesting number in it. What it cannot tell you is how much of the weight change the drug accounted for, and that will need a controlled comparison.