United States: Semaglutide – the active ingredient in both Ozempic and the recently approved Wegovy – reduced renal disease risk, as well as the rate of death, in patients with both Type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
According to a huge clinical study that was made on Friday, the work might alter the strategy to treat some of the most fragile and severe individuals in whom there is a kidney disease prevalent in over one in seven adults in the US but for which there is no known cure.
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Dr. Katherine Tuttle, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and an author of the study, said, “Those of us who really care about kidney patients spent our whole careers wanting something better,” as the New York Times reported.
She added, “And this is as good as it gets.”
The findings of the study were made public at a European Renal Association meeting held in Stockholm on Friday. The study results were simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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It was conducted with the support of the manufacturing company of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk and was so successful that the company ceased the programme.
He said that Novo Nordisk’s executive vice president of development, Dr. Martin Holst Lange, this the company will approach the FDA asking for a new label to cover the assertion that the drug prevents the decrements of chronic kidney disease or complications in patients with type 2 diabetes.
About the chronic kidney disease
Chronic kidney disease refers to the condition where the kidneys are not carrying out their tasks appropriately, and one of its main causes is diabetes, as the New York Times reported.
Compared to the early stages, the kidney tissue at this level of advancement is not capable of filtering blood. This has a tendency to build up in the blood fluid and waste, which can worsen high blood pressure and increase the chances of getting heart disease and stroke, as noted by Dr. Subramaniam Pennathur, the chief of the nephrology division at Michigan Medicine.
Moreover, as per the experts, Kidney damage is usually chronic, and many patients do not present any signs or symptoms of the disease until its end stages.
Further, doctors attempt to prevent further deterioration of this organ’s functionality with what is presently available in terms of medications and dietary and lifestyle changes, according to Dr. Melanie Hoenig, a nephrologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
However, the disease can advance to a level where a patient requires dialysis – the process of removing waste and excess fluids from the body or transplantation of a new kidney.