This visitor submit was written by our buddy (and former Diabetes Every day staffer) Maria Muccioli, PhD. Maria is the lead researcher at Thrivable, a number one market analysis agency that makes a speciality of diabetes affected person experiences. Thrivable maintains panels of 1000’s of actual individuals from the diabetes neighborhood to assist healthcare organizations deeply perceive affected person conduct available in the market.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are a category of medicines authorised to handle sort 2 diabetes. These medicine, together with the well-known semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), improve insulin secretion and suppress glucagon launch, thereby regulating blood glucose ranges. They’re terribly efficient for weight reduction and might result in a decreased reliance on insulin injections or different glucose-lowering drugs.
Whereas these expensive medicine appear marvelous for sort 2 diabetes and weight problems, we wished to know what individuals with sort 1 diabetes thought. We dove into sufferers’ experiences and opinions. Leveraging our proprietary affected person panel, we explored how sufferers understand and expertise GLP-1 RAs as instruments in diabetes administration.
Let’s get into the info.
Excessive Off-label Use of GLP-1 Medication by Individuals with Kind 1
Whereas GLP-1s have but to be authorised by the FDA for sort 1 diabetes administration, their use is more and more frequent. In our full panel of over 15,000 individuals with sort 1 diabetes, 4.5 p.c of adults are utilizing a GLP-1 like Ozempic off-label.
It’s clear {that a} sizable proportion of individuals with sort 1 diabetes are in search of out these drugs. Latest analysis factors to some hanging advantages of those remedy choices for sort 1 diabetes, and notably additionally in newly recognized sufferers, equivalent to:
- Reasonable weight reduction
- Glycemic management
- Ldl cholesterol discount
- Remedy security profile
The members of our panel report related advantages — many respondents with sort 1 diabetes named weight reduction, improved blood sugar outcomes, and decrease insulin necessities as a number of the perks of utilizing a GLP-1. Some alternative quotes:
“My A1C is at an all-time low, my blood sugars are in a gentle vary, and my insulin consumption is considerably decreased.”
“Properly after years, and I imply years, of an enormous quantity of diets and train to decrease my A1C, nothing had any results. Then this remedy modified every part for me.”
“I’ve misplaced 40 kilos and my A1C has dropped to six p.c from 8 p.c.”
In fact, not everybody has had such a constructive expertise. Some customers report that their GLP-1 drug has been ineffective or that the unwanted side effects (usually gastrointestinal misery) have been an excessive amount of to deal with. Others complained that they have been unable to afford these medicine, or that they have been unimaginable to search out as a consequence of shortages.
Ongoing analysis into the protection and efficacy of GLP-1 RA for sort 1 diabetes, coupled with the obvious demand, might flip the kind 1 section into a big income driver.
GLP-1 Customers Love Their New Medication
In a survey of over 800 individuals with diabetes (performed in January 2024), 84 p.c of individuals with diabetes who at the moment use a GLP-1 RA remedy reported a really constructive or considerably constructive expertise. These findings are according to earlier findings from our 2023 report, the place a survey of over 2,000 individuals with sort 2 diabetes additionally revealed that 84 p.c of present GLP-1 RA customers have been glad with their therapy.
Apparently, individuals with sort 1 diabetes have been much more happy with their GLP-1 expertise than these with sort 2 diabetes (86.8 p.c and 83.2 p.c respectively). And a large share of our respondents reported being “extraordinarily glad” with their present therapy, together with:
- 42.4 p.c of Trulicity customers
- 41.8 p.c of Ozempic customers
- 51.3 p.c of Mounjaro customers
GLP-1 Medication Create Optimism
The kind 1 diabetes neighborhood usually appears to the long run. Glucose administration expertise has improved in a big method in recent times, and there are even higher CGMs, insulin pumps, and insulins within the improvement pipeline. On the similar time, there’s loads of skepticism {that a} treatment to the illness — mentioned to be “5 years away” for many years — will ever be discovered.
Once we requested our panel, we discovered one thing exceptional: Those that at the moment use a GLP-1 RA therapy have been much more more likely to have an optimistic view of the way forward for sort 1 diabetes care.
Of these with sort 1 diabetes, 41.2 p.c of customers reported feeling optimistic, in comparison with simply 5.6 p.c of non-users. The discovering means that medicine like Ozempic and Mounjaro are efficient sufficient to meaningfully change the outlook of customers.
GLP-1 Medication Have Turn out to be “Extraordinarily Vital” to Customers
Medication equivalent to Ozempic and Mounjaro are more and more seen as a first-line therapy for sort 2 diabetes; for many individuals with the situation, a GLP-1 is an important drug that they take. That can by no means be the case for these with sort 1 diabetes, who nonetheless want day by day insulin injections or infusions to reside.
However, once we requested GLP-1 RA customers how essential these medicine have been of their total administration of diabetes, we have been stunned by the outcomes. Customers with sort 1 diabetes have been nearly as seemingly (32.8%) to say that their GLP-1 drug was “extraordinarily essential” as customers with sort 2 diabetes (35.6%).
Unsurprisingly, individuals who don’t use these medicine are far much less seemingly (6 occasions much less seemingly) to name GLP-1s “extraordinarily essential” within the administration of sort 1 diabetes.
GLP-1 customers specific excessive satisfaction and present exceptional optimism about the way forward for diabetes care, emphasizing the significance of those remedies. These findings reinforce the impression of affected person views, fueling hope for a extra constructive and promising diabetes panorama.
Treatment Language Could Be a Flip-Off
Responding as to if media portrayal of GLP-1 RAs as a treatment for diabetes has influenced their expectations concerning their efficacy, 54.7 p.c of sufferers expressed that this was not the case. These with sort 1 diabetes have been significantly much less seemingly than these with sort 2 to be influenced by “treatment language.” Whereas 21.6 p.c of these with sort 2 diabetes mentioned the sort of messaging would alter their notion of efficacy, solely 10.2 p.c of these with sort 1 diabetes acknowledged as such.
Treatment language was usually considered with skepticism and gave the impression to be a turn-off for some respondents.
“A lot of individuals take the phrase “treatment” actually – and instantly. It has been promised to all diabetics for many years but has by no means been delivered,” mentioned one respondent.
Some have been extra blunt: “Bullshit. It helps handle it however isn’t a treatment.”
In the end, GLP-1 RAs have been met with overwhelmingly constructive sentiment from sufferers, and could also be more practical (and appreciated) by sufferers with sort 1 diabetes than is mostly realized. No matter media buzz across the potential for “curing” diabetes, most sufferers preserve affordable efficacy expectations. We foresee a resilient future for GLP-1s in diabetes care.
