Hello! The list of potential health advantages of a booming class of weight-loss and diabetes medications continues to grow.
New data from the interim phase of the study on Tuesday showed that Novo NordiskAn older, once-daily GLP-1 drug for diabetes and obesity called liraglutide may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease by protecting patients' brains.
Only sooner or later earlier, a latest study found that semaglutide – the lively ingredient in Novo Nordisk's weight-loss injection Wegovy and its diabetes counterpart Ozempic – can even help people quit smoking.
These GLP-1 treatments mimic hormones produced within the gut to suppress an individual's appetite and regulate blood sugar. Researchers also consider the drugs may help treat other conditions through additional effects on the body, comparable to reducing inflammation.
However, way more research is required to substantiate this, and bigger and longer studies are needed before regulators can approve weight reduction and diabetes drugs for extra uses.
In March, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took the primary major step towards wider use of the drugs when it approved Wegovy since it dramatically reduced the chance of great heart complications.
Additional approvals for the drug and other weight-loss drugs could increase pressure on insurers to cover the treatments, lots of which might cost around $1,000 a month. Patchy insurance coverage for Wegovy and other weight-loss drugs is a significant barrier to access for patients.
Here are among the other conditions GLP-1 is being tested for:
Cardiovascular health
- In a late-stage study, Novo Nordisk's Wegovy reduced the general risk of heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular causes by 20 percent in patients with obesity and heart disease.
- Wegovy helped individuals with obesity, diabetes and heart failure to have fewer cardiovascular symptoms comparable to fatigue and shortness of breath in a great attempt.
- Eli Lilly carries out a late phase clinical trial of tirzepatide – the lively ingredient in its weight-loss drug Zepbound and its diabetes drug Mounjaro – for patients with obesity and heart failure. The study is predicted to be accomplished later this month.
Chronic kidney disease
- Novo Nordisk's Ozempic delayed the progression of chronic kidney disease in diabetes patients and reduced the chance of death from it and from serious cardiac events by 24 percent in a late-stage study.
- Eli Lilly is investigating tirzepatide in a Interim study in patients with obesity and chronic kidney disease. The study is scheduled to finish in 2026.
Fatty liver disease
- Eli Lilly's Zepbound helped as much as 74% of patients grow to be disease-free without worsening liver scarring. By comparison, in an interim study, only 13% of individuals received no treatment after 52 weeks.
- Novo Nordisk is investigating semaglutide in a late phase clinical trial for a typical kind of fatty liver disease.
- Other pharmaceutical corporations comparable to Zealand Pharma, Viking TherapeuticsAnd Altimmun also investigate the respective treatment options for weight reduction and diabetes in patients with fatty liver disease.
Sleep apnea
- Eli Lilly's Zepbound helped reverse moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in as much as 52% of patients in two late-stage studies. The FDA is currently reviewing Zepbound for this use.
Alzheimer's disease
Seeks
- Outside researchers are investigating the potential of GLP-1 to curb addictive behaviors, including nicotine and alcohol use.
- Novo Nordisk plans a study with a secondary goal of determining whether semaglutide and other treatments can change every day alcohol consumption, in keeping with U.S. government clinical trials. registrationThe foremost goal of the middle-stage study is to measure the effect of the drugs on liver scarring in patients with alcohol-related liver disease.
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Latest technology in healthcare
The healthcare sector can’t get enough of AI documentation tools. Just ask the CEOs of Commure and Augmedix.
Commure offers a variety of solutions, including an AI scribe and a revenue cycle service, designed to assist reduce the executive burden on clinicians. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Hemant Taneja, the CEO and managing director of enterprise capital firm General Catalyst.
Earlier this month, Commure announced a brand new addition to its portfolio: the corporate is acquiring a separate AI-based writing company called Augmedix.
Founded in 2012, Augmedix was considered one of the primary corporations to introduce AI-powered medical documentation in hospitals and healthcare systems. These tools help doctors save time by recording their conversations with patients and routinely converting them into clinical notes and summaries using AI. Augmedix makes a speciality of using the technology in settings comparable to emergency rooms.
On July 19, Commure agreed to take Augmedix private in an all-cash deal. Commure will acquire all outstanding common shares of Augmedix for a complete value of roughly $139 million, in keeping with a publicationAugmedix shareholders will receive $2.35 per share. The company's board of directors unanimously approved the deal, in keeping with the press release.
CNBC met with Commure CEO Tanay Tandon and Augmedix CEO Manny Krakaris on Monday to learn more in regards to the acquisition and what it means for each corporations.
Tandon said the 2 corporations initially met to debate partnership opportunities because they’re each suppliers to HCA Healthcare, considered one of the biggest health systems within the U.S. But because the discussions progressed, they realized the organizations could work together in a more comprehensive way, he said.
Commure already has an ambient documentation tool, nevertheless it is specialized for outpatient and ambulatory settings, while Augmedix's offering is specialized for acute care settings. The corporations decided to merge the tools to attenuate the friction that may arise from documenting individual parts of patient care.
“You have to have documentation that covers the entire journey. It doesn’t end when you leave the [emergency department]and then start over again when they are admitted to the hospital,” Krakaris said. “Today, trying to bridge those two worlds is a huge, labor-intensive step.”
Tandon said there is a lot of buzz in the AI transcription services market, and he expects a segmentation between high-level transcriptionists that automate simple tasks and enterprise-level transcriptionists that enable deeper integration with electronic health records and revenue cycles.
Commure is interested in building the latter, and Krakaris said the real value of the Augmedix acquisition will be in merging the tools and merging the back-end technologies on one platform.
“It's kind of under the surface, it's like an iceberg, but that's where the value lies,” he said. “It's not something you can see very well in the application itself.”
In the short term, Commure and Augmedix are working on the relevant approvals and closing the deal with shareholders. Once this is complete, they will start planning new implementations and targeting customers with the combined solution.
The companies are still working out exactly what the acquisition will mean for the Augmedix brand, but it will likely look something like this: “Augmedix powered by Commure,” Tandon said.
“If we do that integration well and do our job well here, we could have a first-class product that truly solves lots of these problems in practice, after which also all of the tasks that arise after the patient dies,” he said.
Read the complete press release in regards to the deal Here.
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