There could also be a brand new, unintended side effect Novo NordiskThe blockbuster diabetes injection Ozempic.
Danish health authorities said on Monday they might contact the European Union's medicines regulator to envision the outcomes by two Danes Studies Association between Ozempic and an increased risk of a rare vision-threatening eye disease in patients with type 2 diabetes.
The condition is known as non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, or NAION. It is characterised by lack of vision resulting from reduced blood flow to the front a part of the optic nerve, which connects the attention to the brain.
The disease is usually painless and mostly affects people aged 50 and over. According to some, NAION affects between 2.3 and 10.3 patients per 100,000 people within the United States every year Estimates.
The Danish Medicines Agency said it had been closely monitoring NAION over the past six months for a possible side effect of semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in Ozempic. As of December 10, the authority had received 19 reports concerning the situation in Denmark.
But the whole variety of NAION cases in Denmark has increased since Ozempic was launched on the Danish market in 2018, Jakob Grauslund, professor of eye diseases on the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), said in a release Monday. There was about 60 to 70 cases a yr in Denmark, but now there are as much as 150, added Grauslund, who helped conduct considered one of the studies.
This is the newest potential concern surrounding popular GLP-1 derivatives like Ozempic, which mimic gut hormones to manage blood sugar and suppress appetite. Demand for this class of medication has soared despite high prices and a handful of unpleasant uncomfortable side effects, mostly occurring within the gastrointestinal tract, reminiscent of nausea and vomiting.
In an announcement on Monday, Novo Nordisk said that after a “thorough evaluation of the studies” and an internal safety assessment, the Danish drugmaker “is of the opinion that the benefit-risk profile of semaglutide remains unchanged.” The company added that safety Patients have top priority.
The studies, conducted independently by SDU researchers and other institutions, each found that diabetes patients who took Ozempic were greater than twice as more likely to be diagnosed with the condition as those that took one other diabetes drug .
The first Danish study was based on data from greater than 400,000 diabetes patients, 1 / 4 of whom were treated with Ozempic and the remaining with other diabetes medications. The second study This included data from greater than 44,000 Danish diabetes patients who received Ozempic between 2018 and 2024 and almost 17,000 Norwegian patients who took the drug between 2018 and 2022.
The studies were published on medRxiv, an internet site that publishes studies before they’ve been reviewed by outside scientists. Both appear to substantiate a connection first suggested at Harvard University study Earlier this yr.
Still, the authors of the primary SDU study said absolutely the risk of disease in semaglutide users was low. They added that assuming the danger stays constant over time, the outcomes suggest that a diabetes patient taking Ozempic for 20 years would have a 0.3 to 0.5% probability of developing NAION get sick.
“Although our results do not exclude the possibility of an increased risk of NAION with the use of semaglutide for obesity, the small number of events observed suggests that any potential risk is likely to be of limited absolute magnitude,” the authors of the primary study said.
They added that additional, in a different way designed analyzes are needed to further investigate whether Wegovy users who take semaglutide for obesity even have an increased risk of the disease.
Currently, analysts are less concerned about NAION's risk and its potential to scale back Ozempic prescriptions.
“Unless it is determined that semaglutide is the only GLP-1 receptor that poses this risk [is] “We are unlikely to be impacted,” TD Cowen analyst Michael Nedelcovych said in a research note on Monday.
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The Latest in Health Technology: Nearly 80% of doctors who use telemedicine achieve this weekly, a study shows
If doctors have their way, telemedicine is here to remain. This is in keeping with a brand new report from Doximity, which found that 83% of physicians want telemedicine to stay “an ongoing part of their clinical practice.”
Doximity operates a digital platform for medical professionals that’s likened to a LinkedIn for doctors. But users can do greater than just network and skim news on Doximity, as the corporate also offers telehealth tools like voice and video calling.
With the corporate having some skin in the sport, Doximity released a report on Tuesday outlining the state of telemedicine within the U.S. and its role in healthcare delivery. In August, 1,171 telemedicine users amongst doctors and 131 telemedicine users amongst nurses were surveyed.
More than 77% of physicians surveyed said they use telemedicine weekly, and 35% said they’ve integrated the technology into their each day clinical practice. Nearly 90% of nurses reported using telehealth weekly and 52% achieve this each day.
“The strong physician support of telemedicine underscores its increasing role in modern healthcare and has the potential to transform the way healthcare is delivered in the coming years,” Doximity said.
Additionally, about two-thirds of physicians said telemedicine of their practices had led to “improved patient outcomes,” particularly amongst neurologists, endocrinologists and rheumatologists. Doximity found that endocrinologists, urologists, gastroenterologists, rheumatologists and neurologists were the most certainly to make use of the technology.
The commonest use of telemedicine in clinical practice is follow-up visits, as 84% of physicians reported using the technology to conduct these appointments. Next, 60% of physicians said they use telemedicine for medication management, 57% said they use it to debate lab reports or test results with patients, and 52% said they use it to maintain patients informed to assist manage chronic illnesses.
Half of physicians surveyed said telemedicine had improved patient adherence to treatment plans, in comparison with 37% last yr.
Nearly a 3rd of doctors said the technology helped them see more patients per day, and two-thirds said it helped them treat their patients higher.
Read Doximity's full report Here.
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