Holly Adams | Reuters
There may be a new, unintended side effect associated with this. Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster diabetes injection, Ozempic.
Danish health officials said Monday they are asking the EU drug regulator. To review the results Two from Denmark study Linking Ozempic to an increased risk of sight-threatening eye conditions in patients with type 2 diabetes.
This condition is called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION. It is characterized by vision loss due to reduced blood flow to the front part of the optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain.
The disease is usually painless and usually affects people 50 years of age or older. NAION affects 2.3 to 10.3 patients per 100,000 people in the United States each year, according to some Estimation.
The Danish Medicines Agency said it had been closely monitoring NAION over the past six months as a possible side effect of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic. As of December 10, the agency had received 19 reports of the situation in Denmark.
But the overall number of NAION cases in Denmark has increased since Ozempic was introduced to the Danish market in 2018, Jacob Groslund, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Southern Denmark, or SDU, said in a statement. release Monday Denmark used to see about 60 to 70 cases a year but now that number is up to 150, added Grauslund, who helped conduct a study.
That’s the latest potential concern about popular GLP-1s like Ozempic, which mimic gut hormones to control blood sugar and reduce appetite. Despite the hefty price tag and a handful of unpleasant side effects that commonly occur on the gastrointestinal tract, such as nausea and vomiting, demand for the class of drugs has increased.
In a statement on Monday, Novo Nordisk said that after a “thorough review of the study” and an internal safety review, the Danish pharmaceutical company “is of the opinion that the benefit-risk profile of semaglutide has not changed.” ” The company added that patient safety is a top priority.
Studies conducted independently by SDU researchers and other institutions both found that diabetes patients who used Ozempic were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with the condition than those who took other diabetes medications. .
The first Danish study was based on data from more than 400,000 diabetes patients, a quarter of whom were treated with Ozempic and the rest with other diabetes drugs. gave A second study Data from more than 44,000 Danish diabetes patients receiving Ozempic between 2018 and 2024 and about 17,000 Norwegian patients between 2018 and 2022 were included.
The studies were posted on medRxiv, a website that posts studies before they are reviewed by outside scientists. Both appear to confirm a link previously suggested at Harvard University. study earlier this year.
Still, the authors of the first SDU study said the absolute risk of the condition was lower among semaglutide users. Assuming the risk persists over time, the results suggest that a diabetic taking Ozempic for 20 years has a 0.3% to 0.5% chance of developing NAION, they added.
“Although our results thus do not rule out the possibility of an increased risk of NAION when using semaglutide for obesity, the low number of observed events suggests that any potential risk is likely to be of limited absolute magnitude,” said the authors of the first study.
Additional analyzes designed differently are needed to further investigate whether Vigovi users, who take semaglutide for obesity, also have an increased risk of the condition, he added.
For now, analysts are less concerned about the risk of NAION and its potential to reduce Ozempic prescriptions.
“Until semaglutide is found to be unique among GLP-1s in maintaining this risk, suggesting [is] unlikely to be affected,” TD Cowen analyst Michael Nedelkovich said in a research note on Monday.
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The latest in health care technology: Nearly 80% of doctors are using telemedicine weekly, Doxmate report shows
If doctors have their way, telehealth is here to stay. That’s according to a new report from Doximity, which found that 83% of doctors want telemedicine to be a “permanent part of their clinical practice.”
Doximity operates a digital platform for medical professionals that has been likened to LinkedIn for doctors. But users can do more than network and read news on Doximity, as the company also offers telemedicine tools like voice calls and video calls.
Because the company has some stake in the game, Doxmitty published a report Tuesday outlining the state of telemedicine in the U.S. and its role in health care delivery. It surveyed 1,171 of its physician telemedicine customers and 131 nurse practitioner telemedicine customers in August.
More than 77 percent of physicians surveyed said they use telehealth weekly, and 35 percent said they have incorporated the technology into their daily clinical practice. About 90% of nurse practitioners said they used telemedicine weekly, and 52% did so daily.
“Physicians’ strong support for telemedicine underscores its growing role in modern healthcare, which has the potential to transform care delivery for years to come,” said Doximity.
Additionally, nearly two-thirds of physicians said that telehealth has “improved patient outcomes” in their practices, particularly among neurologists, endocrinologists and rheumatologists. Doximity found that endocrinologists, urologists, gastroenterologists, rheumatologists and neurologists were the top adopters of the technology, respectively.
The most common use of telemedicine in clinical practice is for follow-up visits, as 84% of physicians said they would use the technology to perform these appointments. Next, 60% of physicians said they use telehealth to administer medications, 57% said they use it to discuss lab reports or test results with patients, and 52% said they use it to help patients manage chronic disease.
Half of the doctors surveyed said telemedicine has improved adherence to patient treatment plans, up from 37 percent last year.
About one-third of doctors said technology has helped them serve more patients each day, and two-thirds said it has helped them treat their patients better.
Read the full report from Doximity Here.
Feel free to send any tips, advice, story ideas and data to Ashley. ashley.capoot@nbcuni.com.