Canadian researchers have been awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Award in Life Sciences for discovering GLP-1 hormones used in diabetes and obesity drugs, including Ozempic, Wegovi and Munjaro, which have changed the lives of millions of people around the world.
Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist and clinician scientist at the University of Toronto and the Lunenfeld Tannenbaum Institute at Sinai Health, shares a US$3 million award with four colleagues from the US and Denmark.
They were all involved in the development of the now-known drugs manufactured by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Drucker and three co-winners discovered glucagon-like peptide-1 in the lab. Another award winner who works at Novo Nordisk, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, led the way in which it could be developed into drug therapy.
The groundbreaking prize, often referred to as the “Oscars of Science,” was handed out in Los Angeles on Saturday for categories that include basic physics and mathematics, in addition to life science.
The Breakthrough Foundation says the award was created to “celebrate the wonders of the science era.” Another Canadian on the National Research Council of Canada, Maaike van Kooten, shared a $100,000 award called New Horizons in Physics with two international colleagues for their work in optics to see exoplanets.
In an interview the week before the event, Drucker said the award made sense because it was awarded by other scientists and “gaining a lot of attention in the scientific community.”
“We have these students, trainees and awards. We convey what the world is seeing and we think the work is valuable. And I think it’s great for morale and for young people,” he said.
Drucker studied genetic sequences of glucagon-like peptides in a Boston lab in the 1980s before returning to Canada to continue his work at the University of Toronto.
He spoke to the Canadian press about how the resulting drugs changed the way they view the world of obesity, and what they think about other health issues GLP-1 will address in the future.
CP: When you started in that lab in Boston, why were you studying this particular hormone?
Drucker: At the time, there were probably around 12 projects in the lab. Therefore, some people were working on pituitary hormones. Some people were involved in basic cell biology projects. Others were working on a variety of genes, and glucagon was one of the lab’s projects… When I got there, it just happened, they said, “OK Drucker, you’re working on the glucagon gene.” (it could have been another gene (and) you’d never heard of it from me again.
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CP: Was there any important moments that made you think, “Ahhh, this is a big deal”?
Drucker: “Eureka!” moment, but one day I stepped into the lab and my notebook went out, I say that the potential importance came to me. And I said, “Oh, well, someone broke into the lab and stole my notebook.” And it turned out to be no – my supervisor (and fellow winner) Joel Hebenner took my notes because he was excited enough with the results to file the patent.
CP: When did you come to the University of Toronto?
Drucker: I’m back in 1987… In 1996, when we and others discovered that GLP-1 inhibited food intake and it was in my lab in Toronto, we conducted experiments on heart disease, inflammation, kidney disease and liver disease. So I’ve been working on this for literally 40 years.
CP: When was Novo Nordisk (the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy) involved?
Drucker: I think big companies, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, and even others, were trying to develop drugs based on GLP-1… But we learned some painful lessons that people would throw GLP-1 too fast. That’s still a side effect today, right? Some people feel uncomfortable, but they may experience nausea and vomiting. So it took quite a while to figure out how to make the GLP-1 last longer. And it took years.
CP: What are you working on now, and what are some other applications of GLP-1 drugs?
Drucker: Looking at it more than lowering blood sugar levels and losing weight over the past few years, we have found that these drugs lower the rate of heart attacks and stroke, lower the incidence of diabetic kidney disease, help people with obstructive sleep apnea, reduce arthritis disorders, and prevent the development of severe metabolic liver disease. Additionally, trials are underway for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and substance use disorders.
So I look at this and say, “Wow, how does that happen? What is GLP-1 doing to improve the health of these organs in the brain, blood vessels, or kidneys?” So I’m really focusing on this aspect of GLP-1, such as how GLP-1 reduces inflammation.
CP: Are there any cardiovascular benefits as GLP-1 drugs lose weight or manage diabetes and it improves cardiovascular health?
Drucker: What we’re starting to see is that in many trials the benefits don’t correlate strictly with weight loss or glycemic control. Therefore, there is no doubt that if you have type 2 diabetes, your blood sugar levels will be normal. If you’re too high, you lose weight.
But when we actually look at the exams and see who has profits and who isn’t, it’s not completely correlated with glycemic control or weight loss. And we believe that there is an independent behavior of GLP-1, possibly through reduction of inflammation. And this is exactly what we are trying to study in our lab.
CP: There is a cultural change in how we view obesity now. What do you think of that?
Drucker: That’s a very complicated argument. So, ten years ago, there was a very understandable movement. Don’t focus on your weight itself, focus on your health. I still think it’s a very strong message. And part of that message was probably because they didn’t have a solution other than bariatric surgery to allow people to become healthier at lower weights. And in society, there is a tendency to be part of society where people live obese, knowing, “Well, you know, it’s just willpower. If you really want to lose weight, you can’t just try” or “You’re lazy”, or “You’re weak.” And we know that a lot of these people we see in clinical practice are very calorie-reduced diets, exercise and do everything we ask them to do. But their brains defend their higher weight… And now, with GLP-1 medication, we can see that… can help people lose weight. And I think this is very powerful. I think this is very powerful because someone who couldn’t do it on their own could lose 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 pounds.
CP: Do you have any concerns or thoughts about these drugs being used by people who may not need them?
Drucker: Well, you’re talking to people who are worried about everything, so of course I have concerns…
It’s a bit similar to “The Hunger Games.” People call six pharmacies, find a pharmacy that has a month’s worth of drugs, drive to that drugstore as fast as possible, and that’s not great. So, while that’s happening, Uncle Harry’s wedding will appear two months later and want to look a little healthier at Uncle Harry’s wedding, so as a doctor, to see others get a prescription, “This person living with heart disease needs these medicines to reduce these medicines to reduce the attack on the heart. Uncle Harry’s wedding.” That was one dilemma.
And the other big challenge we still have is that these drugs are very expensive. Not all people in many jurisdictions have access to drug regimes. We don’t have all drug plans to agree to a refund for the drug…
And finally… we have not undergone clinical trials on healthy people without diabetes. They were not studied in clinical trials. Is there anything we should be concerned about when you want to lose weight? I don’t know. And we must always be aware that we don’t know about the safety of these drugs.
– This interview has been compiled by the Canadian media for length and clarity.
