What Other Conditions Can Weight Loss Drugs Treat?
Weight loss and diabetes may just be the beginning for drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound as reports increasingly suggest they may have far-reaching benefits for treating conditions as diverse as heart disease, liver disease, Parkinson’s, sleep apnea and addiction, sparking research among firms competing in pharma’s latest gold rush.
Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound — brand names for drugs semaglutide and tirzepatide — are far and away the most famous members of a booming class of medications known as GLP-1 agonists, which mimic the function of a gut hormone involved in regulating blood sugar and appetite, glucagon-like peptide-1.
GLP-1 drugs were initially approved to treat diabetes and, more recently, obesity, and with more and more people using the drugs, signs of other potential benefits are starting to emerge and Novo gathered enough data to prove this and scored approval from the Food and Drug Administration in March to add cardiovascular benefits to Wegovy’s label (experts expect Zepbound will be shown to have similar heart benefits), with research showing semaglutide could slash the risk of heart problems like heart attack and stroke by 20%, regardless of weight lost.
Excerpted from Forbes
