(Bloomberg) — Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic was linked to lower rates of dementia and a range of other mental problems in a University of Oxford study that raises expectations about the diabetes drug’s potential ancillary benefits. 

After a year on Ozempic, patients had a 48% lower risk of dementia compared with those who’d taken sitagliptin, an older drug, as well as a lower risk of cognitive deficits compared with those who’d been on either sitagliptin or glipizide, another older medicine. 

Ozempic patients also had a 28% lower risk of smoking than those who’d been taking glipizide, the researchers said in The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine journal. 

The study is the latest in a series of trials to show potential benefits beyond diabetes control and weight loss for semaglutide, the main ingredient in both Novo’s Ozempic and its obesity medicine Wegovy. Most of the other benefits — to the heart, kidneys and arthritic knees — are linked to weight loss, but scientists are also studying whether the medicine can help treat alcoholism by reducing the urge to drink.

Methodology

The Oxford trial didn’t assign patients randomly to take Ozempic or other drugs. Instead, it relied on medical records from more than 100,000 US patients, and researchers used statistical methods to ensure they were making the most accurate comparisons possible. That means that more research will be needed “to find out for certain if semaglutide does have benefits to reduce cognitive dysfunction or affect smoking rates in people with diabetes,” John Wilding, a professor of medicine at the University of Liverpool who reviewed the study independently, said in a comment distributed by the nonprofit Science Media Centre.  

Novo is studying the drug as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease in two large trials due to deliver results next year.

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