HAMBURG, Germany — Israeli researchers have found that the drug semaglutide — which matches by the favored model names Wegovy and Ozempic — can considerably enhance blood sugar management and promote weight reduction in adults with Sort 2 diabetes over a interval of as much as three years.
Sort 2 diabetes is a situation the place the physique both doesn’t produce sufficient insulin or doesn’t use it successfully, resulting in elevated glucose ranges within the blood. With time, it turns into more and more difficult to handle these ranges. Semaglutide belongs to a bunch of medicine often called GLP-1 receptor agonists, which help sufferers in regulating their blood sugar ranges.
“Our long-term evaluation of semaglutide in a big and various cohort of sufferers with Type 2 diabetes discovered a clinically related enchancment in blood sugar management and weight reduction after six months of remedy, comparable with that seen in randomized trials,” says examine lead writer Avraham Karasik, a professor from the Institute of Analysis and Innovation at Maccabi Well being Companies, in a media release. “Importantly, these results have been sustained for as much as three years, supporting using as soon as weekly semaglutide for the long-term administration of Sort 2 diabetes.”
Prior research had already proven semaglutide’s efficacy when administered as soon as per week, however there was an absence of intensive, long-term real-world knowledge on its efficiency.
To handle this, Israeli researchers analyzed knowledge from 200,000 sufferers within the Maccabi diabetes registry. They targeted on 23,442 sufferers who had been prescribed weekly doses of semaglutide between August 2019 and December 2022. Their blood sugar control levels have been assessed each 12 months earlier than and 6 months after commencing the remedy.
The optimum goal for HbA1c (a typical measure of blood sugar management) in Sort 2 diabetes sufferers is lower than seven %. Ranges past this will improve the danger of problems akin to heart disease, kidney disease, and nerve disorders.
The findings have been encouraging. Six months into the remedy, sufferers, on common, skilled a 0.77 % drop in HbA1c ranges (from 7.6% to six.8%) and misplaced about 4.7 kg in weight. The advantages have been much more pronounced in sufferers who had by no means taken a GLP-1 receptor agonist drug beforehand.
The analysis additionally highlighted that constant adherence to the remedy led to extra important reductions in each blood sugar ranges and weight. In circumstances the place sufferers had maintained a routine for no less than two years, they noticed sustained enhancements in HbA1c and weight over three years, significantly these with excessive adherence.
The examine, although, didn’t look at potential side-effects.
“On this massive real-world examine, we have been capable of present sturdy reductions in HbA1c and physique weight with emphasis on drug adherence,” says Karasik. “Knowledge are consistent with leads to randomized managed trials and present the long-term secure good thing about as soon as weekly semaglutide.”
The findings have been offered at this 12 months’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes.
