United States: Recently, news has come to light that a patient who had been prescribed Ozempic (approved for type 2 diabetes and weight loss) over the past year weight loss helped not just reduce her urge to eat but also her desire to drink alcohol and use her vape pen.
She mentioned, “It’s like someone’s just come along and switched the light on, and you can see the room for what it is,” and, “And all of these vapes and cigarettes that you’ve had over the years, they don’t look attractive anymore. It’s very, very strange. Very strange,” CNN Health reported.
More about the case
A lot of people who have gone through this experience and used the pills in a class called GLP-1 receptor agonists, of which an estimated 15 million were polled, describe this as a strange sensation. But now, Ozempic’s drug-producing company, Novo Nordisk, has declared it is conducting an investigation into the same issue.
The company will analyze how semaglutide, which is an active ingredient in the drug Ozempic and other meds, affects alcohol consumption—scheduled to be done this month. It must be mentioned that improving alcohol consumption is not the main goal of this trial.
New trial by Novo Nordisk
The Danish company Novo Nordisk confirmed on Wednesday that the main motive of the new trial is to study whether the medicines can help improve liver health.
Novo Nordisk stated, “Secondary endpoints include safety and tolerability and changes in alcohol consumption,” and “There is a significant unmet medical need in alcohol-related liver disease, and the first line of treatment for the condition is lifestyle intervention to refrain from drinking alcohol.”
According to a Bloomberg News report, the trial has an aim to have 240 participants, which is going to be started from May 20, as per a government database.
The spokesperson from Novo Nordisk said, “Even though not all patients in the trial will have alcohol use disorder, it is natural to include alcohol consumption as a secondary endpoint,” while noting that the trial is a part of the company’s major plan of addressing liver diseases.
What do other experts say?
According to Christian Hendershot, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Bowles Center of Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Those of us doing work in this area see this as a step in the right direction,” and “Additional treatment options for this group are really needed,” as CNN Health reported.
Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, Novo Nordisk’s CEO, said, “We know that one of the benefits in obesity is that it addresses this craving, the desire to snack and eat,” and, “That function in the brain, in this craving center, is perhaps also what is benefitting some of the other addictions.”