Glipizide

Boy breaking a cigarette in half iStock, Agung Putu Surya Purna Kristyaw Adding to growing evidence of its benefits beyond glucose control and weight loss, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic could also potentially help diabetics quit smoking, according to new research. Novo Nordisk ’s Ozempic (semaglutide) might be able to help diabetes patients quit smoking, according to a new study . Results, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine , show that patients taking semaglutide were significantly less likely to seek medical help for tobacco use disorder (TUD) versus other antidiabetic medications. Compared with insulin, semaglutide cut the risk of TUD by 32%. This effect was slightly attenuated—but remained statistically significant—when semaglutide was compared against other GLP-1 receptor agonists. Relative to other drugs in this class, Novo’s molecule lowered the likelihood of TUD by 12%. Patients treated with semaglutide were significantly less likely to need smoking cessation medications and counselling. Semaglutide also cut the risk of TUD in the subgroup of diabetes patients with or without obesity. In most cases, semaglutide’s benefit on smoking arose within 30 days of starting treatment, according to the study. Tuesday’s findings come from an emulation target trial using a nationwide database of electronic health records. In total, the researchers retrieved the records of 222,942 patients who had comorbid type 2 diabetes and TUD. Of these, 5,967 were treated with semaglutide while the remaining participants were on other anti-diabetic therapies, such as metformin, insulin, SGLT2 inhibitors and other GLP-1 analogs. Patient records were followed for 12 months and were assessed for TUD-related healthcare measures, such as medical encounters for TUD diagnosis, prescriptions for cessation drugs and appointments for cessation counselling. Importantly, the researchers did not conduct a well-controlled trial and their conclusions do not immediately support the clinical use of semaglutide for smoking cessation. Instead, the study’s findings provide a promising signal for the use of the drug to address the prevalence of cigarette use. “These findings suggest the need for clinical trials to evaluate semaglutide’s potential for TUD treatment,” the researchers wrote, noting that their study has several methodological shortcomings, including potential documentation bias, missing data and residual founding. The results add to the growing body of evidence backing the potential of semaglutide—and GLP-1 receptor agonists more broadly—in neuropsychiatric conditions, particularly those related to addictive behaviors. Earlier this month, new research published in eClinicalMedicine showed that semaglutide was associated with significantly lower risk of dementia and nicotine misuse versus other diabetes therapies, such as sitagliptin and glipizide. In an August 2023 interview with BioSpace , Michael Glickman said that in his experience patients who were on GLP-1 medicines reported a weaker desire to smoke or drink after initiation. According to Glickman, GLP-1s could be “blunting that pleasure response across the board.”

Danish multinational pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk A/S office building in Fremont, California iStock, hapabapa Despite recent concerns about suicidality and other neuropsychiatric issues, a recent study has found that Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic (semaglutide) is associated with lower risks of dementia, cognitive deficit and nicotine misuse. Novo Nordisk ’s Ozempic (semaglutide) may have more health benefits outside of weight loss and blood sugar control, according to a recent study, which found a significant correlation between the GLP-1 receptor agonist and a lower risk dementia and other neurological conditions. Research investigators cautioned, however, that the study is observational and is not meant to establish a significant clinical benefit of Ozempic in neuropsychiatric diseases. They also highlighted other study limitations, including potential misdiagnoses, incomplete data and residual confounding. “Our findings instead prompt further investigations into the role of semaglutide for the treatment or prevention of cognitive deficits and nicotine misuse,” the researchers wrote in their study. For the study, published last week in eClinicalMedicine , researchers from the University of Oxford drew data from the electronic health records of more than 100 million patients. From this database, they constructed three cohorts, each consisting of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients who had been treated with semaglutide between December 1, 2017 and May 31, 2021. These cohorts were then propensity-matched with comparators receiving different diabetes drugs: sitagliptin, empagliflozin and glipizide. (Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro (tirzepatide), which has a mechanism similar to semaglutide’s, was not approved for use in the U.S. until 2022.) The primary objective of the study was to probe potential links between Ozempic use and neuropsychiatric problems. The drug had recently come under some scrutiny for potentially elevating the risk of suicidal thoughts, with the FDA and European Medicines Agency launching investigations into these side effects. The agencies have since announced that they found no evidence to support a link to suicidality. Results of the new study showed that Ozempic might instead have significant protective effects against neuropsychiatric outcomes. Compared with sitagliptin, Ozempic was associated with a 48% lower risk of dementia. Novo’s GLP-1 therapy was likewise correlated with a 28% reduction in the likelihood of cognitive deficit versus glipizide and sitagliptin. The study also found that the risk of nicotine misuse was significantly lower among patients on Ozempic versus comparator treatments. “Concerns regarding potential neuropsychiatric adverse outcomes associated with semaglutide are not supported by our analyses, which is informative to regulatory bodies, patients, and clinicians,” the researchers wrote. Aside from helping to clear neuropsychiatric concerns, these latest findings also add to the growing body of potential clinical benefits that Ozempic—and GLP-1 therapies more broadly—may confer. Last week, for instance, a study on JAMA Network Open found that GLP-1 receptor agonists are also linked with significantly lower risks of 10 obesity-associated cancers.