Ozempic may lower dementia risk, nicotine use

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Good morning! Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic may do a lot more than just regulate blood sugar levels and promote weight loss.

This is according to a new study from the University of Oxford. analysis A paper published last week reported that Ozempic may be able to reduce the risk of dementia and a range of other psychiatric disorders compared to other currently available treatments for diabetes patients. Additionally, researchers found that Ozempic also reduced nicotine dependence in these patients.

The findings add to a growing list of potential health benefits for Ozempic and other highly popular GLP-1 drugs, including Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss injectable Wegovy and medicines from rival Eli Lilly.

Large-scale clinical trials have already demonstrated that semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovi, can reduce the risk of serious cardiovascular complications and kidney disease. Other studies are looking at GLP-1 in patients with conditions such as sleep apnea and fatty liver disease to evaluate whether these drugs can suppress addictive behaviors such as alcohol consumption and gambling.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the data from the new analysis, published Thursday in The Lancet’s eClinical Medicine journal.

The study was based on the medical records of more than 100,000 US patients with diabetes, including more than 20,000 who were prescribed semaglutide between December 2017 and May 2021.

The researchers compared semaglutide with three other diabetes medications: Merck’s Januvia (sitagliptin), Pfizer’s Glucotrol (glipizide), and Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance (empagliflozin). They compared the risk of 22 neurological and psychiatric outcomes occurring within one year of treatment with the different diabetes medications.

Overall, Ozempic was shown to be associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment and nicotine dependence, the researchers said.

After one year, patients taking Ozempic had a 48% lower risk of developing dementia than those taking Januvia. The risk for Ozempic patients was 37% lower than those taking Glucotrol and 9% lower than those taking Jardiance.

In particular, the previous the study It has been found that people with diabetes are at higher risk of developing dementia.

Patients taking Ozempic had an 18% reduction in nicotine dependence compared to patients taking Januvia. Ozempic patients also had a 28% lower nicotine dependence compared to patients taking Glucotrol and a 23% lower dependence compared to patients taking Jardiance.

“Our findings suggest that the use of semaglutide may have unexpected benefits beyond diabetes management, in the treatment and prevention of cognitive decline and substance abuse,” said Dr Riccardo De Giorgi, clinical lecturer at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study. statement.

But the authors stressed that their analysis was observational, and the results need to be replicated in a controlled trial in which patients are randomly assigned to receive Ozempic or another drug, says Dr Max Tuckett, another clinical lecturer at Oxford and the study’s lead author.

We will continue to monitor future research in this area so please stay tuned for our coverage.

If you have any tips, suggestions, story ideas, data, etc., please feel free to send them to Annika. Email: [email protected].

UnitedHealth Group’s cyberattack woes aren’t over yet.

The healthcare giant Second Quarter Results The company on Tuesday beat analysts’ expectations for revenue and profit but raised its estimate for the per-share impact of the cyberattack on Change Healthcare.

UnitedHealth reported quarterly revenue of $98.86 billion, slightly above the $98.84 billion that analysts had expected, according to LSEG. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $6.80 for the quarter, compared with Wall Street’s expectations of $6.66 per share.

UnitedHealth reaffirmed its full-year adjusted earnings guidance of $27.50 to $28, but now estimates the impact of business interruption to be 60 cents to 70 cents per share, up from an earlier estimate of 30 cents to 40 cents per share. Last quarter. UnitedHealth said the impact of the business interruption would include lost revenue and “costs to maintain full readiness” for affected services at Change Healthcare.

UnitedHealth shares were up about 3% on Tuesday morning.

Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth, offers payment and revenue cycle management tools and processes more than 15 billion claims transactions annually, with one-third of patient records passing through its systems, according to its website.

UnitedHealth discovered in February that a cyberattack had infiltrated part of Change Healthcare’s information technology network. The company isolated and disconnected the affected systems “immediately upon detection” of the threat, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The disruption had severe effects across the US health care system, with many doctors temporarily unable to fill prescriptions or accept fees, and some providers withheld thousands of dollars from medical bills. Personal Savings To stay afloat.

UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Whitty revealed in May that the company had paid a $22 million ransom to attackers to prevent the release of patients’ private medical data, and he estimated that the breach could affect up to a third of all Americans.

UnitedHealth said Tuesday it had restored “the majority” of Change Healthcare’s services. releaseThe company also said it has provided more than $9 billion in advance payments to providers in need.

Read UnitedHealth’s full earnings report here.

If you have any tips, suggestions, story ideas or data, please feel free to send them to Ashley at [email protected].