Rational and Irrational Exuberance About GLP-1 Medicines

It’s true. We have been getting some pretty good news about GLP-1s lately. In persons with prediabetes and obesity, tirzepatide was 94% effective at preventing the development of diabetes. In the SELECT study, semaglutide for obesity might have cut COVID fatalities by a third. So a little exuberance about the potential of GLP-1 medicines is certainly reasonable.

But in the last few days, we’ve seen that tip into irrational exuberance about GLP-1 agonists. It’s not wise.

“Fountain of Youth”

The clue that we’re entering this territory comes in headlines like these:

Ozempic Could Delay Aging
Ozempic Hailed as ‘Fountain of Youth’
Scientists Hail ‘Remarkable’ Drugs Set to Unlock ‘Fountain of Youth’ and Slow Aging
Ozempic and Wegovy Can Supercharge Weight Loss and Even Defy Aging –
But Can They Save the NHS?

This is just a sample. Much of it is a reaction to the surprising finding of a reduction in deaths due to infections, including COVID, during the SELECT study. It was a remarkable result. So the offhand comment of Yale’s Professor Harlan Krumholz was a reasonable expression of enthusiasm:

“Semaglutide has far-reaching benefits beyond what we initially imagined. It’s not just avoiding heart attacks. These are health promoters. It wouldn’t surprise me that improving people’s health this way actually slows down the ageing process.”

Back to Earth

Yes, the potential is great. However, the fountain of youth bit is absurd.

What’s more, delivering necessary medical care with these drugs takes more than a snap of the fingers. Neglecting the reality of issues with scale of supply, provision of well-informed care, drug pricing, equitable access, and a host of other challenges will bring only disappointment.

None of these issues are insurmountable. All of them require work. Let’s get on it.

Click here and here for more on recent remarkable news. For a sampling of the exuberance, click here, here, and here.

Exuberant Joy, photograph by Satdeep Gill, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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September 2, 2024