A field of Ozempic made through Novo Nordisk is clear at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024.
Hollie Adams | Reuters
Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic would possibly short the danger of opioid overdoses in sure sufferers, demonstrating its possible as an supplementary remedy for opioid usefulness defect, in step with a new study excused Wednesday.
The lively component in Ozempic, semaglutide, was once related to a “significantly lower” opioid overload chance than alternative diabetes cures in community recognized with each Kind 2 diabetes and opioid usefulness defect, mentioned the paper printed in JAMA Community Unmistakable.
The consequences counsel that Ozempic may just trade in possible as a device for addressing the continued U.S. opioid epidemic, which was once declared a public health emergency in 2017. There are these days 3 efficient cures to forbid overdoses from opioid usefulness defect, however a unutilized supplementary is wanted as a result of some sufferers merely don’t usefulness them, mentioned top learn about co-author Dr. Rong Xu, a biomedical informatics mentor at Case Western Conserve College.
In 2022, handiest about a quarter of sufferers with opioid usefulness defect gained advisable cures for it, and lots of discontinued remedy inside six months, in step with the Facilities for Defect Keep watch over and Prevention. The Nationwide Heart for Drug Abuse Statistics says opioids are a think about around 72% of overload deaths within the U.S.
The learn about effects additionally upload to mounting proof {that a} extremely pervasive magnificence of diabetes and weight problems therapies referred to as GLP-1s will have a number of fitness advantages past regulating blood sugar and selling weight reduction. Novo Nordisk, its rival Eli Lilly and detached researchers had been racing to check the ones medication’ possible in sufferers with power statuses starting from kidney problem and leisure apnea to addictive behaviors reminiscent of nicotine and alcohol usefulness.
Within the learn about excused Wednesday, researchers from Case Western Conserve College and the Nationwide Institutes of Fitness analyzed the digital information of just about 33,000 sufferers who had been prescribed semaglutide or alternative diabetes cures between December 2017 and June 2023. The learn about was once no longer funded through Novo Nordisk.
Round 3,000 community had been prescribed semaglutide injections, occasion the residue sufferers gained therapies that ranged from insulins to used GLP-1s for diabetes. That comes with dulaglutide, the lively component in Eli Lilly’s drug Trulicity, and liraglutide, which is the lively component in Novo Nordisk’s Victoza.
Researchers monitored what number of opioid overload instances happened in sufferers throughout a one-year duration next they restrained remedy with semaglutide or alternative medication. For instance, there have been 42 instances of opioid overload amongst a gaggle of sufferers that gained semaglutide, when put next with 97 instances amongst some other workforce that gained insulins, in step with the learn about.
That displays a 58% decrease chance of opioid overload in sufferers who took semaglutide, Xu mentioned.
However Xu famous the learn about has boundaries because it depends upon knowledge from digital fitness information.
Extra analysis, in particular medical trials that randomly assign sufferers to obtain semaglutide or alternative therapies, is had to ascertain how a lot Ozempic and alternative GLP-1s can backup the ones with opioid usefulness defect, in step with the learn about authors. The ones randomized research too can decide whether or not the ones therapies are recommended to the overall opioid usefulness defect nation or handiest sure sufferers with the situation.
“The extent to which GLP-1 medications could benefit treatment of opioid use disorders and help prevent overdoses is unclear,” Dr. Nora Volkow, top learn about co-author and director of the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse of the Nationwide Institutes of Fitness, mentioned in a commentary to CNBC. “The preliminary findings from this study point to the possibility that GLP-1 medications may have value in helping to prevent opioid overdoses.”
Xu added that the researchers plan to check semaglutide in sufferers with opioid usefulness defect and weight problems.
