Reference News Network on December 20 According to the Spanish newspaper "Vanguard" on December 14, the American "Science" weekly selected a new class of obesity drugs as "2023 Scientific Breakthrough". The weekly's "Scientific Breakthrough of the Year" award recognizes the most outstanding scientific advances of the year.
According to Science Weekly, the benefits of these drugs have gone beyond obesity, as they have also been shown this year to reduce mortality and kidney disease risk in people with cardiovascular disease. At the same time, these drugs also help to eliminate the stigma that comes with obesity, as they suggest that obesity is caused by biochemical causes rather than the result of a lack of willpower.
But Science warns that these drugs pose a challenge for clinicians and researchers because their emergence raises new scientific questions and challenges the healthcare system to push for equitable access to expensive patients.
These drugs, known as 'GLP-1 receptor agonists,' ask more questions than they answer, but that's the hallmark of a real breakthrough." Holden Thorpe, editor-in-chief of Science weekly, wrote in an editorial.
One of the items published in August of this year was about 1In a clinical trial involving 70,000 people, semaglutide, a "GLP-1 receptor agonist" drug, reduced the risk of death from heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular disease by about 20%. Denmark's Novo Nordisk said in a report in October that another clinical trial involving more than 3,500 people showed that the drug slowed the progression of kidney disease.
Novo Nordisk has monthly sales of more than $1 billion, and its market capitalization has surpassed Denmark's gross domestic product (GDP) for 2022 this year.
The second "GLP-1 receptor agonist" drug, Eli Lilly's tirpatide, is now approved in Europe for diabetes and is expected to be approved for obesity in the coming months. The results of clinical trials have shown that tirpatide is more effective than semaglutide. Other multinational pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca, are also developing their own "GLP-1 receptor agonist" drugs.
One question that arises from the advent of this new series of drugs is what indications they have besides diabetes and obesity. Following the publication of several findings this year, researchers will evaluate its potential for cardiovascular and kidney disease. Clinical trials are also underway to develop addiction with these drugs** after some users reported a decrease in their cravings for tobacco or alcohol (due to the drug's ability to block receptors in the brain that are involved in the reward-seeking mechanism). Several other clinical trials are exploring the potential effects of these drugs in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
In the field of obesity, questions to be answered include: Should the use of these drugs be lifelong?What are the possible long-terms?How to prevent weight after stoppingNo pharmaceutical companies have shown interest in this area of research. And the big question in the short term is how to make it easier for these methods to reach all those who need them.
*: Reference message.