AT A GLANCE
- On x.com Senator Bernie Sanders said once Ozempic’s exclusivity ends, drug manufacturers could sell generic versions for less than $100 per month.
- Dr. Daniela Lamas writes on GLP-1 meds in The New York Times, that the drugs’ ‘…numerous benefits are pointing to an emerging cause of so much human disease: inflammation.’
- Dr. Lotte Bjerre Knudsen at Novo Nordisk, who led the team that created the first GLP-1-mimicking drug approved for obesity, has been awarded America’s Nobel, the 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
- Corbus Pharmaceuticals is studying newer CB1 pills that penetrate the brain to a much lesser extent and may be safer, as per STAT.
- Patients with liver disease and diabetes and on GLP-1 drugs, had a lower risk of cirrhosis and mortality, from JAMA Internal Medicine.
- Reuters on Hims & Hers offers compounded Wegovy for $99 a month to select professions.
NEWS
- Senator Bernie Sanders said once Ozempic’s exclusivity ends, drug manufacturers could sell generic versions for less than $100 per month, on x.com.
- Novo Nordisk is expected to lose its exclusivity on semaglutide in 2031, though compounded versions are already available in the U.S. because FDA allows drugs in shortage to be compounded.
- Forbes writes that Ozempic could soon have its price cut following cost negotiations with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
- Ulrich Otte, Novo Nordisk’s senior vice president of finance & operations, said that it is ‘…very likely…’ that Ozempic will be part of cost negotiations organized by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- Otte adds that Novo Nordisk ‘…is ready for that.’
OPINION
- Dr. Daniela Lamas, a critical care physician in Boston, writes on GLP-1 meds in The New York Times, that the drugs’ ‘…numerous benefits are pointing to an emerging cause of so much human disease: inflammation.’
- The author continues ‘…Inflammation is the body’s response to infection or injury…’ though can also be the source code for heart attacks, stroke, liver disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and dementia.
- Some scientists wonder, if inflammation accelerates aging, drugs that can tamp down inflammation, including GLP-1s, can slow cognitive decline and shift the course of aging.
- Dr. Ted Kyle at ConscienHealth adds ‘…People who think of obesity simply as a disease of fatness are walking around with a profound misunderstanding of this disease – it is very much a disease of inflammation.’
- Here here.
- Dr. Lotte Bjerre Knudsen at Novo Nordisk, who led the team that created the first GLP-1-mimicking drug approved for obesity, has been awarded the 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award together with Drs. Joel Habener and Svetlana Mojsov.
- The award is sometimes referred to as America’s Nobel, and is the most prestigious award to recognize Mojsov, now at Rockefeller University, who was the first person to uncover the chemically active form of GLP-1.
- In JAMA, Knudsen recounts her work to develop the first long-acting GLP-1 drug, liraglutide.
- She adds that despite the approval of liraglutide for type 2 diabetes in Europe (2009) and the US (2010), essentially all major pharmaceutical companies had abandoned new drug discovery for obesity.
- Novo Nordisk pursued an ambitious program for the treatment of obesity, resulting in the 2014 FDA approval of liraglutide for obesity.
- Semaglutide was the second GLP-1RA approved for the treatment of obesity and the first to deliver double-digit weight loss.
- The full potential of GLP-1 is likely only beginning to unfold; there is still much to learn about GLP-1 in cardiovascular and kidney disease and potentially in many other areas.
- Almost twenty years ago, rimonabant, an inhibitor to type 1 cannabinoid, or CB1 receptors, was pulled off the market due to concerns it was tied to suicidal ideation.
- Novo Nordisk, and a small biotech called Corbus Pharmaceuticals, are studying newer CB1 pills that penetrate the brain to a much lesser extent and may be safer, as per STAT.
- Expectations for Corbus’ obesity candidate have led its shares to surge over 700% this year.
- The hope is that CB1-inhibiting drugs may lead to significant weight loss without as much nausea as the GLP-1 drugs.
- Novo has an upcoming Phase 2 readout of over 200 patients on 50 mg of monlunabant, from its acquisition of Inversago last year, with a projected 16% to 19% weight loss.
- Corbus is further behind its drug CRB-913, though states its has even less brain penetration than Novo’s molecule, with the potential to offer higher doses and achieve greater weight loss.
DATA
- JAMA Internal Medicine publishes a clinical study regarding patients with liver disease and diabetes on GLP-1 drugs, demonstrating a lower risk of progression to cirrhosis and mortality.
- From just over 16,000 patients on a GLP-1, in comparison to those on an oral DPP-4 inhibitor medication, there was a 14% lower risk of cirrhosis, a 22% lower rate of cirrhosis complications, and an 11% decreased rate of mortality.
- Notably, the study did not find any association between GLP-1 usage and outcomes in patients with pre-existing cirrhosis.
- The authors further state that the presence of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease, or MASLD, can help with the prioritization of GLP-1 therapy in persons with diabetes.
ADDITIONAL TOPICS
- Reuters on Hims & Hers offers compounded Wegovy for $99 a month to select professions.