Η BigPharma… και οι ζωές μας

Οι ενέσεις της ανθρώπινης ηλιθιότητας.

Αντιγράφω από τους Times του Λονδίνου

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/weight-loss-jab-keeps-working-for-up-to-three-years-w2xcrzxtr

Weight-loss jab keeps working for up to three years

Semaglutide is approved for NHS use as Ozempic for diabetics and Wegovy for patients who are obese

Επειδή το άρθρο είναι πίσω από paywall, το αντιγράφω εδώ

A popular slimming jab keeps working for up to three years in patients with diabetes, according to some of the first real-world data on the drug.

Semaglutide is approved for NHS use as Ozempic for diabetics and Wegovy for patients who are obese. It has proved popular with celebrities including Jeremy Clarkson and Elon Musk.

However, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the treatments watchdog, has recommended its use for only “a maximum of two years” to aid weight loss, based on trials.

Research presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Hamburg, Germany, found that patients taking the drug after three years reported sustained weight loss and continued to show improved blood sugar levels.

“Our long-term analysis of semaglutide in a large and diverse cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes found a clinically relevant improvement in blood sugar control and weight loss after six months of treatment, comparable with that seen in randomised trials”, said Professor Avraham Karasik, from the Institute of Research and Innovation at Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel, who led the study.

“These effects were sustained for up to three years, supporting the use of once-weekly semaglutide for long-term management of type 2 diabetes.”

The research involved more than 23,000 adults with type 2 diabetes, a chronic condition that leads to high levels of sugar in the blood. Complications can include heart disease, stroke, and kidney, eye and nerve problems.

Adults with type 2 diabetes should aim for a blood sugar measurement, known as HbA1c, of less than 7 per cent.

On average, before starting treatment, the patients weighed 94.1 kg (14st 11lb) and had a reading of 7.6 per cent. Six months later, they had on average reduced their weight to 89.7kg (14st 1lb) with a reading of 6.8 per cent.

Three years on, those who kept using the drug showed sustained improvements. Their HbA1c was down by 0.76 percentage points after 24 months and by 0.43 points after 36 months, and weight was reduced by 6.0kg (13lb) after 24 months and 5.8kg (12.7lb) after 36 months.

The study was funded by Wegovy and Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic. In August Novo Nordisk published the findings of its own five-year study on Wegovy, which included 17,604 adults over the age of 45 from 41 countries. This found that use of the drug can slash the risk of a heart attack or stroke in obese people by a fifth.

Wegovy became available in Britain last month and is prescribed to patients with a BMI of more than 30 — or 27 in the presence of comorbidities — via specialist NHS services.

The government has also announced plans to test use of the jabs in the community via GP prescribing.

Επιμύθιο: η ανθρώπινη ηλιθιότητα και το σύμπαν είναι απέραντα αλλά τώρα τελευταία έχω αρχίσει να αμφιβάλω για το σύμπαν (Αλβέρτος Εϊνστάιν)