Investigators at Cedars-Sinai and different establishments carried out a nationwide, population-based examine to establish developments in using glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs)—prescription drugs bought underneath in style drug names like Ozempic and Wegovy—in the US.
The examine outcomes, revealed in Annals of Inside Drugs, may assist researchers consider how the prescription patterns of GLP-1RAs have modified over time, notably for the use for treating kind 2 diabetes versus weight problems.
GLP-1RA drugs are a more recent class of medicines that have been initially developed to deal with sufferers with kind 2 diabetes. Nevertheless, given their promising outcomes, in 2021 the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration accredited the drugs for continual weight administration in adults with weight problems or those that are obese with not less than one weight-related situation, comparable to hypertension, prediabetes or blood vessel illness.
Since then, the demand for these medicine has skyrocketed, with a marked surge in GLP-1RA prescriptions for weight reduction administration. Nevertheless, the regular swell in demand has additionally had downstream results, resulting in nationwide drug scarcity and points with accessibility.
“Basically, after the remedy was accredited for weight problems, GLP-1RA use took off so shortly that we misplaced management and imaginative and prescient of how briskly individuals have been selecting up these drugs, and the developments of use are unsure,” mentioned the examine’s co-first writer Ali Rezaie, MD, medical director of the Cedars-Sinai GI Motility Program and director of bioinformatics on the Medically Related Science and Expertise (MAST) program at Cedars-Sinai.
“Whereas GLP1-RAs provide a number of advantages, they’re additionally related to numerous frequent and unusual unintended effects, necessitating cautious monitoring of their prescription patterns.”
To achieve perception into how GLP-1RAs have been prescribed and consumed through the years, Cedars-Sinai investigators used a real-world nationwide database containing medical data of about 45 million people with not less than one outpatient or inpatient go to within the U.S. from 2011 via 2023.
Throughout this timeline, the investigators discovered roughly 1 million new GLP-1RA customers and labeled them based mostly on whether or not they had diabetes, weight problems or different associated situations once they have been prescribed the remedy.
The researchers famous that between 2011 and 2023, semaglutide (a GLP-1RA) customers have been disproportionately feminine, non-Hispanic white and with a physique mass index of 30 or higher. Throughout the identical interval, the info additionally revealed that the proportion of latest customers with kind 2 diabetes decreased.
“Quite the opposite, new GLP-1RA prescriptions amongst these with weight problems or related comorbid situations with out kind 2 diabetes doubled, with a notable uptick in remedy use particularly since 2020,” Rezaie mentioned.
This noticeable shift and rising pattern in GLP-1RA prescriptions for these with weight problems, scientists say, is essential.
“This knowledge means that extra well being care suppliers are seeing the advantages of those drugs for treating weight problems, which is a major public well being shift,” mentioned Yee Hui Yeo, MD, co-first writer of the examine and a medical fellow within the Karsh Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cedars-Sinai.
“Nevertheless, it additionally raises considerations about potential remedy shortages and the necessity to make sure that sufferers with diabetes nonetheless have entry to those remedies.”
The researchers consider that the examine’s findings can play an important function in growing methods to handle the rising recognition and demand for GLP-1RAs.
“We hope our findings will inform well being care insurance policies and promote equitable entry to those important remedies,” Yeo mentioned.
