Is there anything Ozempic CAN'T do? Miracle jab slashes risks of deadly kidney ... trends now
Weight loss jabs can slash the chances of dying from kidney disease by almost a quarter, a world-first study found.
Patients given semaglutide – the key ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy – were less likely to progress to kidney failure or need transplants in what has been hailed a ‘game-changer’ for the condition.
They were also far less likely to die from heart attack or stroke, compounding recent findings that it is the biggest breakthrough in cardiovascular disease since statins.
Known for dramatic weight-loss, experts believe these latest benefits are independent, with the drug triggering a separate response in kidney cells.
Researchers said the apparent wonder drug is ‘saving kidneys, hearts and lives’, boosting survival chances in conditions traditionally seen as a death sentence.
Patients given semaglutide – the key ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy – were less likely to progress to kidney failure or need transplants, a a world-first study has found
This chart shows how kidney patients given semaglutide (yellow line) had less chance of suffering major kidney injuries compared to patients on the placebo (grey line). The larger chart shows the raw data, where as the smaller chart shows this calculated as a decreased risk of an event, which translates to a 24 per cent less risk of a serious kidney problem among patients taking the Ozempic ingrideint cohort
Professor Vlado Perkovic, lead researcher from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, said it was a ‘truly exciting’ day for kidney patients.
He said: ‘The benefits that we saw were bigger than we dared hope and we think it’s a game-changer for diabetes and kidney disease.
‘We think it's a really huge step forward for the community and very exciting for people with kidney disease due to diabetes.’
Uncontrolled diabetes and high blood pressure are the biggest causes of chronic kidney disease which kills around 45,000 people in the UK each year.
Rising levels of type 2 diabetes is driving a ‘tsunami of kidney disease’ around the world, affecting around 7.2 million people in the UK.
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The global FLOW trial involved 3,500 patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, including 62 from the UK, who were followed for more than three years.
They were either given the appetite suppressant semaglutide - a prescription drug offered by the NHS – or a placebo.
One in 20 of the people on the dummy drug and existing treatments died during this period, showing the levels of sickness among these patients.
Given once weekly at the same dose as Ozempic, it was found to slash the risk of serious kidney problems or death due to heart or kidney causes by 24 per cent.
The risk of major cardiovascular events – such as heart attacks and stroke decreased by 18 per cent and the chances of dying early from any cause fell by a fifth (20 per cent).
Speaking ahead of presenting the findings at the European Renal Association Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, this weekend Professor Perkovic said the potential implications are ‘dramatic’.
‘Firstly, just by reducing the progression of kidney disease, fewer people will reach dialysis, which will reduce the numbers of people on dialysis and also the numbers of people who need kidney transplants.
‘In the long term, with fewer people needing transplants, they might become more rapidly available to those who do still need them, and therefore reduced the sort of waiting period before goes well.’
The findings come less than a fortnight after research presented at the European Congress on Obesity showed Novo-Nordisk’s drug slashed the chances of heart attack and stroke by a fifth.
