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Cost-Effectiveness of Endoscopic Bariatric Therapies Compared with Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy and Semaglutide.

Afentou N, Hall J, Okeke Ogwulu C, et al. Obesity surgery. 2026.

Editor's note

A health-economic modeling study evaluating obesity interventions from a UK National Health Service perspective, with semaglutide serving as the pharmacotherapy comparator. The findings concern cost-effectiveness rather than clinical efficacy or safety, and depend heavily on modeling assumptions about long-term weight regain. Useful context on how semaglutide compares economically with procedural options, but not a source of new clinical evidence.

Plain-language abstract

This UK cost-effectiveness analysis compared endoscopic weight-loss procedures with sleeve gastrectomy surgery and with semaglutide. Semaglutide was more cost-effective than an intragastric balloon but less so than endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty for lower-BMI patients.