While GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy are being widely prescribed for weight loss, doctors currently do not have a way to predict if a patient will successfully respond to the drugs.
Now, newly launched medtech Hepta is sharing results from a real-world study that suggests a simple blood test could help change that.
The California-based company says it has identified blood-based markers that may help doctors determine if a patient is biologically predisposed to respond to the popular weight loss drugs, and how the drugs might affect them. Hepta unveiled the results during Digestive Disease Week 2026.
“What this study shows is that response biology is visible in blood before treatment begins, and that the biological effects of treatment can be tracked the same way,” Hepta CEO Hamed Amini, Ph.D., said in a news release. “That moves GLP-1 prescribing from trial and error toward biology-guided treatment.”
The study examined blood samples from overweight and obese patients with MASLD, also known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Patients were given up to 2.4 mg weekly of Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 semaglutide (marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy) or a placebo. Blood was drawn at the start of treatment and approximately one year later.
Using its AI-powered liquid biopsy platform, LiquidTransformer, Hepta found pre-treatment epigenetic signals, or chemical patterns, in circulating DNA that could distinguish responders from non-responders. This includes signals tied to how fat is synthesized and stored, according to the release. Response was defined as at least 10% weight loss over a year.
Patients who took the drug also showed changes over a year that were not observed in the placebo group, indicating that “drug-associated biological effects can also be tracked directly in blood over time,” according to the release.
The results suggest that “response is not solely created by the drug. It is partly written into a patient’s biology before treatment begins,” Hepta Chief Technical Officer Soheil Damangir said in the release.
Hepta launched six months ago after raising $6.7 million in seed funding, with a focus on extending blood-based DNA testing typically used in cancer diagnosis and treatment to other chronic diseases. The company was founded by former employees of Illumina, Grail and Google.
Hepta’s initial focus has been a test to diagnose MASH, a severe form of fatty liver disease. Novo’s Wegovy became the second drug approved to treat that disease last year, following Madrigal Pharmaceuticals’ Rezdiffra in 2024.
The company said it is in discussions with drugmakers focused on metabolic diseases and is planning additional studies to determine whether its blood test can predict how patients respond to other types of medications.
