Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic, plans to investigate the drug's effect on alcohol usage, although it's not prioritizing addiction as a concern.
For roughly three months, she shared with CNN that her intake of the medication, which is authorized for type 2 diabetes and commonly utilized off-label for weight management, had dramatically reduced the continuous thoughts in her mind that compelled her to eat, exactly as she'd hoped. But there was a surprising secondary effect: Ferguson claimed her urge to consume alcohol and utilize her vape pen vanished too.
"It's as if someone switched a light on, and now you can see the room as it truly is," she said. "And all the vapes and cigarettes you've accumulated through the years – they're not appealing to you anymore. It's incredibly odd. Very odd."
This sensation is familiar to thousands of individuals taking these medicines, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which are used by approximately 15 million Americans, as per a recent poll. Furthermore, the manufacturers of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk, have pledged to research the circumstance.
The organization plans to examine the impacts of semaglutide, Ozempic's active component, and other medications on alcohol consumption in a recently announced clinical study related to alcohol-associated liver disease - albeit decreasing drinking isn't the primary objective of the study.
Targeting liver disease, not reliance
Novo Nordisk has previously maintained that it has no intentions of studying semaglutide, which is also sanctioned for weight reduction as Wegovy, in aspects like alcohol addiction, despite a myriad of anecdotal anecdotes and ongoing scholarly studies.
Novo Nordisk reaffirmed its position on Wednesday, pointing out that the fundamental purpose of the new study is to investigate whether these drugs can enhance liver health. The primary measurement is the drugs' impacts on enhanced liver fibrosis, or scarring, over 28 weeks.
"Secondary endpoints include safety and tolerability and modifications in alcohol consumption," a Novo Nordisk spokesperson stated in an email. "There is a considerable unmet medical need in alcohol-related liver disease, and the initial line of treatment for the illness is a lifestyle adjustment to abstain from drinking alcohol."
The trial, first reported by Bloomberg News, aims to enlist around 240 participants and is scheduled to commence on May 20, according to a government database.
"Even though not all trial participants will suffer from alcohol use disorder, it's natural to include alcohol consumption as a secondary endpoint," Novo Nordisk's spokesperson asserted, stating that the trial is part of the company's initiatives to address liver diseases more comprehensively.
Notwithstanding, professionals in addiction science cheered the development.
Additional therapy options are necessary
"Those of us engaged in this work see this as a step in the correct path," said Christian Hendershot, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Bowles Center of Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is conducting one of the few studies on this issue, via email on Wednesday. "Additional treatment options for this particular community are sorely needed."
Novo Nordisk's CEO told CNN in August that the drug manufacturer had heard a multitude of comparable anecdotal accounts.
"We know that one of the advantages in obesity is that it addresses this craving, the longing, to snack and eat," Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen said. "That function in the brain, in this craving center, is presumably the same benefit some of the other addictions are experience."
Studies in animals suggest the same thing, mentioned Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, who published a study in May 2023 demonstrating that semaglutide reduces alcohol consumption in rodents, emphasizing that "at least one of the mechanisms through which these drugs reduce alcohol drinking is by curtailing the rewarding attributes of alcohol," such as those pertaining to the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Jorgensen stated that Novo Nordisk hadn't studied that impact and had no plans to do so at the time.
"It's not the simplest to examine," he clarified. "You shouldn't anticipate that we would delve into and study these addictions extensively."
Jorgensen did disclose that there might be "an opportunity to gather data when we execute substantial studies," as well as to leverage artificial intelligence to analyze vast databases of experiences with the drugs in the real world for signals of consequences on issues like alcohol use.
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly, which produces tirzepatide-based competitors to Ozempic and Wegovy called Mounjaro and Zepbound, stated on Wednesday that they had encountered "anecdotal commentary in publications about the potential employment of GLP-1s for other indications like addiction."
However, the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical corporation mentioned that it continues "to evaluate potential development options for tirzepatide" but hasn't disclosed any plans to create its medications for these uses.
Novo Nordisk is examining various medications in its freshly unveiled trial for alcohol-related liver disease; other than semaglutide, the organization has declared it will explore experimental drugs cagrilintide and a different one named zalfermin - identified as NNC0194-0499 in the trial posting - independently and in concert.
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Cagrilintide is a remedy that replicates a hormone known as amylin, which Novo Nordisk is testing in unison with semaglutide (a hormone imitator that copies GLP-1) in substantial trials for both diabetes and weight control under the name CagriSema. Zalfermin, according to the company, operates like a different metabolic hormone, FGF21, predominantly produced in the liver.
Despite the gradual initiation of trials for such medicines, so many reports of their influence on alcohol usage have surfaced that Leggio, Hendershot, and other scientists cautioned in a piece in the journal Nature Medicine that these drugs should not be prescribed for alcohol addiction until their safety and effectiveness have been confirmed in clinical experiments.
"Medical judgments should stem from controlled trials, complemented by other clinical and pre-clinical evidence," the researchers asserted in the December item. "Expertly controlled [trials] with scientific vigilance are needed prior to any assertion of efficacy for alcohol-use disorder and other substance use disorders can be asserted."
^1: This text can be found under the link: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/09/health/novo-nordisk-alcohol-drug-trial-novel-investigational-medicines/index.html
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The new clinical study announced by Novo Nordisk aims to investigate the impact of semaglutide, the active component of Ozempic, on alcohol consumption in individuals with alcohol-associated liver disease, although reducing drinking isn't the primary objective.
Despite Novo Nordisk's previous statement that it has no intentions of studying semaglutide in aspects of alcohol addiction, they have included alcohol consumption as a secondary endpoint in the trial.
Source: edition.cnn.com
