Research has shown that the diabetes drug Ozempic has a positive effect in chronic kidney disease and obesity.
This is the first time that it has been shown that this diabetes drug, now best known as a means of losing weight, is also effective for patients with chronic kidney damage.
The international study led by clinical pharmacologist Hiddo L. Heerspink of the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands has been published in Nature Medicine and presented simultaneously at the annual congress of the American Society of Nephrology.
Hiddo L. Heerspink got the idea for this study at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier, he had discovered that another class of drugs against diabetes-2, the so-called SGLT2 inhibitors also appeared to work well for patients with chronic kidney damage without diabetes. He therefore wanted to investigate whether semaglutide, also known as Ozempic, would also work positively for patients with chronic kidney disease and obesity.
The first participants started this study in the second half of 2022. The study was conducted in four countries: Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
Half of the 101 participants received 24-week injections of semaglutide, while the other half received a placebo. The study found that the amount of protein in urine, an outcome measure indicating the degree of kidney damage, was reduced by as much as 52 per cent.
Furthermore, the degree of kidney inflammation was found to decrease by 30 per cent, the participants’ blood pressure drop was as large as a blood pressure-lowering drug gives, and in them, a key measure of heart failure was reduced by 33 per cent. Participants also lost about 10 per cent of their weight.
Heerspink commented: ‘The great thing is that the drug has both direct and indirect effects on the kidneys.
“The drug has direct effects on inflammation parameters in the kidney, and lowers fat tissue around the kidneys, lowering the amount of protein in the urine. And indirectly because it reduces participants‘ weight and blood pressure.
“We sent the participants questionnaires about their diet. They appeared to feel hungry less often and therefore eat less.”
As for the follow-up, Hiddo L Heerspink is clear: “All signals are green to test this drug in a large study. I would like to find out whether it can lead to fewer dialyses or kidney transplants. And I would also very much like to investigate whether this drug also works positively in patients with kidney damage without obesity. It is only very difficult now to get enough of the drug to do the studies due to its unprecedented popularity.”
