Novo’s weight-loss drug could be taken for life, expert says – POLITICO

“I don’t think it is commercially realistic to put whole populations on a medical therapy until you know how the biological system works,” Shakur said, adding that there remains a risk of pancreatitis and some rare thyroid cancers which should be monitored during the course of treatment.

Long-term treatment would also create even greater demand for the drug. Novo Nordisk can’t manufacture enough of its medicine to meet the global demand currently.

Novo Nordisk told POLITICO it is “continuing to expand global production,” as the company plans to invest 45 billion Danish krone (over €6 billion) in production capacity in 2024, up from 25 billion Danish krone (€3.6 billion) from last year.

The data

The study, led by researchers at University College London and designed to test semaglutide’s effects on heart attack and stroke, also found that patients maintained an average of 10 percent weight loss after four years on the treatment.

The drug also lowered the risk of cardiovascular events by 20 percent, as shown in an initial readout last year. These cardiovascular benefits happened independently of the participants’ starting weight or how much weight they lost during the trial, researchers found.

“The characteristics of the patients when they entered the trial — male, female, old, young —and particularly the level of weight that they had was unrelated to the benefit that they got,” Deanfield said.

The trial was conducted on 17,604 adults with preexisting cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity, but without diabetes, across 41 countries.

“There are many people living with overweight or obesity, who have struggled to improve their weights and these drugs will for that reason alone produce an important clinical opportunity. But these are drugs that will also improve their background medical problems. That really is quite exciting,” Deanfield said.