Patients discontinuing the use of weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy risk regaining their original body weight in about five years, a Novo Nordisk official said on Wednesday.

Based on individual profile, patients could gain back about half of the original body weight in two to three years if they stop the treatment, the Danish drugmaker's head of global drug discovery, Karin Conde-Knape, told a health conference organized by CNBC.

The comments signal that the weight regain could be slower than previously known.

Data from a Novo-funded study in April last year showed that patients regained two-thirds of their lost weight one year after discontinuing the use of the drug.

The data had pointed to the chronic nature of obesity and suggested that continuous treatment would be required to maintain weight and health improvement.

Wegovy, a semaglutide-based drug, is approved in the U.S. for treatment of obesity in adults. The drug activates GLP-1, a hormone that triggers the feeling of fullness in the body after eating.