STAT News Landscape Piece: Obesity Drugmakers Now Testing in Children as Young as Six Following Novo STEP Young Phase 3 Readout September 7
STAT News published Tuesday September 15, 2026 a landscape piece flagging that obesity drug developers have expanded pediatric trial testing to include children as young as six years old, extending the age range down from the Wegovy 12-and-older U.S. label. Novo Nordisk's STEP Young Phase 3 (topline reported September 7) tested once-weekly semaglutide in 165 children aged 6 to under 12 with obesity: 40.4% of the semaglutide group achieved a BMI below the obesity threshold at week 68 versus 0% on placebo, with no new safety concerns and no signals for growth or pubertal development. STAT flagged additional pediatric-obesity trial activity following the January 2023 AAP Clinical Practice Guideline endorsement of medication therapy for children aged 12+ and consideration in ages 6-11. The September 4 Pediatrics journal publication documented a 310-fold increase in GLP-1 prescribing to U.S. children aged 8-11 with obesity between 2019 and mid-2026 (0.03% to 9.3%), with 93.7% of recipients having severe obesity and 65.2% having weight-related comorbidities. Full STEP Young results are scheduled for ObesityWeek 2026 (November 14-17, Washington DC). No Wegovy sNDA for ages under 12 has been filed as of September 15, 2026.