United States: The new study by the University of Oxford performed on Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic revealed its association with lower rates of dementia and other variety of mental issues, which generates more expectations about the drug’s potential to help in diabetes as a part of its ancillary benefits.
More about the finding
The experts noted that after a year of usage of Ozempic, patients had a 48 percent lower risk of having dementia as compared to those who had taken sitagliptin, which is an older drug.
Along with that, a lower risk of cognitive deficits was also noticed as compared to those who had been on either sitagliptin or glipizide, another older medicine, as bloomberg.com reported.
More about the study
The study is one of the latest efforts to measure the probable benefits of the drug beyond diabetes control and obesity management of semaglutide, which is taken as a most important constituent of both Novo’s Ozempic and its obesity variant, Wegovy.
Among the other benefits, they are mostly linked to the kidney, heart, and arthritic knees and are otherwise also associated with weight loss. However, scientists who are considering the benefits are also studying if the drugs could also help in the treatment of alcoholism, which includes the reduction of the urge to drink.
How was the study conducted?
For the study, the University of Oxford did not assign patients randomly to consume Ozempic or other drugs,
However, it did focus on the medical data of around 100,000 US patients. Furthermore, the scientists used statistical methods to make sure they were undertaking the most accurate comparisons possible.
According to John Wilding, a professor of medicine at the University of Liverpool who reviewed the study independently and made his comment, which was distributed by the nonprofit Science Media Centre, more research would be required “to find out for certain if semaglutide does have benefits to reduce cognitive dysfunction or affect smoking rates in people with diabetes,” as bloomberg.com reported.
Additionally, Novo is also examining the drug’s usage for the treatment of Alzheimer’s in the upcoming large-scale trials, whose results are likely to be published next year.