India, July 9 -- The most comprehensive comparison of obesity drugs to date has found that no single GLP-1 or related weight-loss drug wins on every count that matters. The drug that sheds the most weight also strips away the most muscle. The drug with the strongest evidence of protecting the heart is not the top weight-loss performer. And on how patients actually feel, no drug in the analysis moved the needle meaningfully, even the ones producing double-digit weight loss.

The findings, published in The BMJ on Thursday, come from a network meta-analysis of 262 trials covering nearly 100,000 patients, the first ranking of 19 obesity drugs across not just kilos lost, but survival, cardiovascular risk, kidney health, side effects and qualit...