Long-term use of popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could put some patients at an elevated risk of a potentially fatal gastrointestinal condition that requires surgery, researchers out of China contend in a newly published journal article.
Such drugs, injected weekly, mimic a hormone produced in the intestines after meals, called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). It helps regulate appetite and food intake, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The agency approved Wegovy in 2021 for weight management in adults with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and/or high cholesterol. Its intended to be used in conjunction with dieting and exercise. The FDA approved Ozempic as a treatment for type 2 diabetes in 2017.
While the drugs are widely reported as safe, theyre generally only studied in patients for up to a year. Beyond that time, the risk of intestinal obstructiona potentially fatal condition that requires surgerycontinues to increase in type 2 diabetics, peaking around a year and a half, researchers from China wrote in a recent letter to the editor published in medical journal Acta Pharmaceutical Sinica B.
They cited, among other sources, a 2022 study in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. It noted that drugs mimicking GLP-1 lead to increased insulin secretion, helpful in lowering blood glucose levels, but can also reduce gastrointestinal motility, leading to constipationand, thus, potential intestinal obstruction.
GLP-1 may cause continuous increases in intestinal length, authors of the new article wrote, causing the small intestine to become as inelastic and fibrotic as a loose spring.
Unfortunately, clinical trials carried out so far have not shown such changes in the human gut, in part because it is difficult to determine the length of the small intestine in adults, they said.
Since intestinal obstruction is a fatal condition that requires surgery, clinicians should be aware that the emergence of chronic adverse events in patients on such drugs may involve the small intestine, they added.
Nearly three-quarters of American adults are obese or overweight, according to the FDA.
Spurred by the use of celebrities like Elon Musk, demand for Wegovywhich helps overweight patients lose about 15% of their body weightis surging. Manufacturer Novo Nordisk expects operating profits to rise by nearly 20% this year, propelled in part by sale of the drug, Bloomberg recently reported.
Fortunes CFO Daily newsletter is the must-read analysis every finance professional needs to get ahead. Sign up today.
