A plain-spoken digest of the semaglutide weight-management and metabolic literature — what the trials measured, stated without the marketing.
Semaglutide Prescribed

THE LITERATURE

Semaglutide references: every source behind the digest.

The trials and reviews cited across this site, with DOIs and PubMed links.

About these references

Every quantitative claim on this site maps to a numbered source below. The list is drawn from the peer-reviewed semaglutide literature — the pivotal STEP weight-management trials, the SUSTAIN-6 and SELECT cardiovascular trials, the FLOW kidney trial, the SURMOUNT-5 head-to-head, the ESSENCE liver trial, and the dedicated safety, pharmacokinetic and pharmacovigilance reviews. Citations are listed in the order they are first referenced across the site. Full DOIs and PubMed or NCBI links are included so each can be checked at the source.

  1. Wilding JPH, et al. (STEP 1 Study Group). Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adults with Overweight or Obesity. N Engl J Med. 2021. ↗
  2. Marso SP, et al. (SUSTAIN-6 Investigators). Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2016. ↗
  3. Lincoff AM, et al. (SELECT Trial Investigators). Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Obesity without Diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2023. ↗
  4. Gabery S, et al. Semaglutide lowers body weight in rodents via distributed neural pathways. JCI Insight. 2020. ↗
  5. Smits MM, Van Raalte DH. Safety of Semaglutide. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2021. ↗
  6. Perkovic V, et al. (FLOW Trial Committees and Investigators). Effects of Semaglutide on Chronic Kidney Disease in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2024. ↗
  7. Aronne LJ, et al. (SURMOUNT-5 Investigators). Tirzepatide as Compared with Semaglutide for the Treatment of Obesity. N Engl J Med. 2025. ↗
  8. Garvey WT, et al. Two-year effects of semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity: the STEP 5 trial. Nat Med. 2022. ↗
  9. Rubino D, et al. Effect of Continued Weekly Subcutaneous Semaglutide vs Placebo on Weight Loss Maintenance in Adults With Overweight or Obesity (STEP 4). JAMA. 2021. ↗
  10. Davies M, et al. (STEP 2 Study Group). Semaglutide 2.4 mg once a week in adults with overweight or obesity, and type 2 diabetes (STEP 2). Lancet. 2021. ↗
  11. Mahapatra MK, et al. Therapeutic Potential of Semaglutide, a Newer GLP-1 Receptor Agonist, in Abating Obesity, Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Pharm Res. 2022. ↗
  12. Sanyal AJ, et al. (ESSENCE Study Group). Phase 3 Trial of Semaglutide in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis. N Engl J Med. 2025. ↗
  13. Wharton S, et al. Gastrointestinal tolerability of once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg in adults with overweight or obesity, and the relationship between gastrointestinal adverse events and weight loss. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2022. ↗
  14. A real-world disproportionality analysis of semaglutide: Post-marketing pharmacovigilance data. J Diabetes Investig. 2024. ↗
  15. Assessment of Thyroid Carcinogenic Risk and Safety Profile of GLP1-RA: A Review. Int J Mol Sci. 2024. ↗
  16. McCrimmon RJ, et al. Impact of Semaglutide on Body Composition in Adults With Overweight or Obesity. J Endocr Soc. 2021. ↗
  17. Wilding JPH, et al. Weight regain and cardiometabolic effects after withdrawal of semaglutide: The STEP 1 trial extension. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2022. ↗
  18. Au Yeung SL, et al. Drug-Drug Interactions Between Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonists and Oral Medications: A Systematic Review. Drug Saf. 2024. ↗
  19. Alopecia associated with the use of semaglutide and tirzepatide: A disproportionality analysis. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2025. ↗
  20. Telogen Effluvium Associated With Weight Loss: A Single Center Retrospective Study. Ann Dermatol. 2024. ↗
  21. Mahapatra MK, Karuppasamy M, Sahoo BM. Semaglutide. In: StatPearls [Internet]. 2024. ↗
  22. Aroda VR, et al. Current Understanding of Sodium N-(8-[2-Hydroxylbenzoyl] Amino) Caprylate (SNAC) as an Absorption Enhancer: The Oral Semaglutide Experience. Clin Diabetes. 2023. ↗
  23. Weghuber D, et al. (STEP TEENS Investigators). Once-Weekly Semaglutide in Adolescents with Obesity. N Engl J Med. 2022. ↗