Dapagliflozin

MONDAY, Nov. 11, 2024 -- The weight-loss drug Ozempic can help reduce stroke patients’ risk of a heart attack or death, a new study says. GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic or SGLT2 diabetes medications like Jardiance or Farxiga both helped protect the health of people following a stroke, researchers found. Patients taking either a GLP-1 or SGLT2 drug had a 74% lower risk of death and an 84% lower risk of a heart attack within an average three years after their stroke, results show. SGLT2 drugs also were associated with a 67% lower risk of a second stroke, researchers report. “Unfortunately, a quarter of people who survive a stroke will have another stroke, and they are also at risk for other cardiovascular events such as a heart attack since many of the risk factors of a stroke are also associated with other forms of heart disease,” said lead researcher Dr. Ali Sheffeh , an internal medicine physician and research scholar at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. “Managing these risks, as well as looking at novel approaches to help lower the chances of another stroke, heart attack or death among this population are all critical steps in increasing stroke survival and improving the quality of life for people who have had a stroke,” Sheffeh added in a news release. For the study, researchers reviewed medical records for more than 7,000 adults treated for strokes caused by blood clots between January 2000 and June 2022 in Minnesota or Wisconsin. The team looked specifically at the potential benefits that might come from taking either a GLP-1 or SGLT2 drug after a stroke. GLP-1 drugs help manage diabetes and promote weight loss by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone, which works to control insulin and blood sugar levels, decrease appetite and slow digestion. SGLT2 drugs lower blood sugar levels by causing the kidneys to filter excess sugar from the body and excrete it in urine, researchers said in background notes. The death rate among stroke survivors who took either a GLP-1 or SGLT2 drug was under 12%, compared with 54% among patients who didn’t take either drug, researchers found. The rate of heart attacks among patients taking either medication was 1.5%, compared to 6% among patients taking neither, results show. “The results of the study are consistent with other research about the preventive role of these medications against cardiovascular disease in people with obesity or heart failure,” Sheffeh said. American Heart Association stroke expert Dr. Cheryl Bushnell said the findings jibe with what is known about the benefits of the two types of medication. “For several years now, we have seen from randomized controlled trials that SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists have the ability to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, which includes stroke, heart attack and death,” Bushnell, vice chair of neurology research at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., said in a news release. “These new findings are in line with what we would expect, and we have seen that these outcomes are evident in patients with Type 2 diabetes and obesity and in patients with obesity without Type 2 diabetes,” Bushnell added. GLP-1 drugs not only promote weight loss, they’ve also been shown to help lower blood pressure and decrease the formation of plaques that clog arteries, Bushnell said. Both are risk factors for heart attack and stroke. “Another mechanism that could be very important for this current study is that GLP-1 receptor agonists can actually decrease clumping of blood platelets, and that, in itself, could decrease the risk of clotting and lead to a lower risk of stroke,” Bushnell said. “We need a clinical trial to know whether these SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists could actually change practice, how we can help patients to prevent a second or recurrent stroke,” Bushnell added. “These medications could be really important, however, we just don't have that data yet.” Researchers presented the findings Monday at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in Chicago. Because theses findings were presented at a medical meeting, they should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

SAN ANTONIO — Well behind Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly in the obesity race, AstraZeneca came to this year’s ObesityWeek with three assets in hand as it hopes to “move beyond short-term weight loss” and attack one of the world’s biggest public health issues with a broad approach. The British pharma has an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist from Eccogene that just entered two Phase 2b trials; a long-acting amylin drug also in Phase 2b; and a combination of the long-acting amylin and a GLP-1/glucagon dual agonist that is set to enter Phase 2b within the next six months. “When we think about how we’re playing in this space, this is AstraZeneca — and we play to win,” Sharon Barr, EVP of BioPharmaceuticals R&D, said Monday morning during a media call. “If we didn’t think we had a highly competitive molecule, we would not be further investing in that molecule and moving it forward rapidly through clinical development.” The drugs each have $5 billion or more in peak sales opportunities, the company previously said . And AstraZeneca’s bold “ new era of growth ” by 2030 hinges in part on their success. The drugmaker on Monday revealed the first data for its once-daily oral GLP-1. It said the average weight loss was 5.8% at four weeks for patients with type 2 diabetes who were taking AZD5004 in a Phase 1 trial. Barr emphasized that the study’s participants had type 2 diabetes, and the oral small molecule “could have a differential effect on weight loss” in obesity trials. There were no serious adverse events, Barr said. On Sunday evening, Viking Therapeutics presented its own Phase 1 weight loss data for its oral GLP-1/GIP dual agonist. Those results, showing up to 6.8% placebo-adjusted weight loss in patients without type 2 diabetes, appear to put the drug at or near the front of the pack of companies developing oral GLP-1s. AZD5004, which was licensed from Eccogene last fall for $185 million upfront , entered two Phase 2b trials this fall for obesity or overweight and type 2 diabetes . The 26-week studies in obesity and type 2 diabetes are expected to wrap up at the end of 2025 and early 2026, respectively, Barr said. Barr noted two potential differentiators for AZD5004. It can be taken with or without food, and it could be paired up with AstraZeneca’s SGLT2 inhibitor Farxiga in type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease and heart failure, and its oral PCSK9 inhibitor called AZD0780 in dyslipidemia. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca said its early-stage long-acting amylin called AZD6234 could be an “alternative solution” for patients who can’t tolerate GLP-1s. It may also help tamp down on the muscle loss that patients experience when on Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound. The Phase 1 trial showed AZD6234 had a “good tolerability profile, with no safety concerns at any of the doses,” according to Regina Fritsche-Danielson, SVP of early cardiovascular and metabolic work, on the media call. There was “encouraging weight loss” and “significant decreases in body weight compared to placebo at all doses studied,” she added. A handful of companies, including Novo, Lilly and Zealand Pharma, are also developing amylin drugs. Everyone in the field awaits the Phase 3 readout of Novo’s CagriSema, which is slated before the end of this year. Even more ambitions in obesity AstraZeneca is “not stopping there,” Barr told reporters. The drugmaker has the option to buy preclinical activin-focused biotech SixPeaks Bio. And it also has a “rich and diverse” discovery pipeline, Barr said, but the drugmaker is being coy about sharing anything on those programs as the field latches onto every nugget of information about new obesity mechanisms. AstraZeneca is also looking externally for other molecules it could bring into the fold, Barr said.