Novo Nordisk stock value drops as diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Saxenda investigated | World News

Two medicine used as diabetes and weight-loss remedies are being investigated after some sufferers reported having suicidal ideas.

Each Ozempic and Saxenda are being investigated by the European Medicines Company (EMA), after Iceland’s well being regulator flagged two instances of Ozempic sufferers having suicidal ideas and one on Saxenda fascinated by self-harm.

Ozempic, which incorporates the lively ingredient semaglutide, was designed as a diabetes therapy however has gained popularity as a “miracle” weight-loss aid.

It’s produced by Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker. Shares within the agency fell by 1% on Monday following information of the investigation, Reuters reported.

Novo’s earlier and fewer efficient weight-loss drug, Saxenda, can be an injection that suppresses urge for food.

It incorporates liraglutide and within the UK is obtainable on prescription as part of a weight administration plan.

Novo Nordisk stated affected person security was its high precedence and it handled all studies about hostile occasions very critically.

Its security monitoring had thus far discovered no “causal affiliation” between the self-harming ideas and the medicine, it stated in a press release.

Suicidal ideas are usually not listed as a aspect impact within the EU product info for both drug.

However within the US, prescribing directions for Wegovy – which additionally incorporates semaglutide – say sufferers must be monitored for suicidal ideas or behaviour.

The warning is there due to dangers related to different weight administration medicine, quite than as a result of drug trials prompt an elevated danger of suicidal behaviour, the US Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) stated.

Learn extra:
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There have been not less than 60 studies of suicidal ideas in sufferers on semaglutide since 2018, in response to the FDA’s Opposed Occasion Reporting System (FAERS).

At the least 70 studies of suicidal considering in customers of liraglutide have been made to the FAERS since 2010.

Data in these studies has not been verified and a report isn’t proof of causation, the FDA stated.

The EMA stated it could contemplate whether or not its evaluation must be prolonged to different medicines that regulate urge for food by mimicking a intestine hormone, often called GLP-1 receptor agonists.