People With Type 1 Diabetes Love Ozempic, Too

This visitor submit was written by our pal (and former Diabetes Day by day staffer) Maria Muccioli, PhD. Maria is the lead researcher at Thrivable, a number one market analysis agency that makes a speciality of diabetes affected person experiences. Thrivable maintains panels of hundreds of actual folks from the diabetes group to assist healthcare organizations deeply perceive affected person conduct available in the market.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are a category of medicines accepted to handle sort 2 diabetes. These medication, together with the well-known semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), improve insulin secretion and suppress glucagon launch, thereby regulating blood glucose ranges. They’re terribly efficient for weight reduction and may result in a decreased reliance on insulin injections or different glucose-lowering medicines.

Whereas these expensive medication appear marvelous for sort 2 diabetes and weight problems, we needed to know what folks with sort 1 diabetes thought. We dove into sufferers’ experiences and opinions. Leveraging our proprietary affected person panel, we explored how sufferers understand and expertise GLP-1 RAs as instruments in diabetes administration.

Let’s get into the info. 

Excessive Off-Label Use of GLP-1 Medication by Individuals With Kind 1

Whereas GLP-1s have but to be accepted by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) for sort 1 diabetes administration, their use is more and more widespread. In our full panel of over 15,000 folks with sort 1 diabetes, 4.5 % of adults are utilizing a GLP-1 like Ozempic off-label. 

It’s clear {that a} sizable proportion of individuals with sort 1 diabetes are in search of out these medicines. Current analysis factors to some hanging advantages of those remedy choices for sort 1 diabetes, and notably additionally in newly recognized sufferers, equivalent to:

• Average weight reduction
• Glycemic management
• Ldl cholesterol discount
• Therapy security profile

The members of our panel report related advantages; many respondents with sort 1 diabetes named weight reduction, improved blood sugar outcomes, and decrease insulin necessities as a number of the perks of utilizing a GLP-1. Some alternative quotes:

“My A1C is at an all-time low, my blood sugars are in a gradual vary, and my insulin consumption is considerably decreased.”

“Effectively after years, and I imply years, of an enormous quantity of diets and train to decrease my A1C, nothing had any results. Then this medicine modified every little thing for me.”

“I’ve misplaced 40 kilos and my A1C has dropped to six % from 8 %.”

After all, not everybody has had such a optimistic expertise. Some customers report that their GLP-1 drug has been ineffective or that the unintended effects (sometimes gastrointestinal misery) have been an excessive amount of to deal with. Others complained that they have been unable to afford these medication or that they have been inconceivable to search out as a consequence of shortages.

Ongoing analysis into the security and efficacy of GLP-1 RA for sort 1 diabetes, coupled with the obvious demand, might flip the kind 1 phase into a big income driver.

GLP-1 Customers Love Their New Medication

In a survey of over 800 folks with diabetes (carried out in January 2024), 84 % of individuals with diabetes who at the moment use a GLP-1 RA medicine reported a really optimistic or considerably optimistic expertise. These findings are in step with earlier findings from our 2023 report, the place a survey of over 2,000 folks with sort 2 diabetes additionally revealed that 84 % of present GLP-1 RA customers have been happy with their therapy. 

Curiously, folks with sort 1 diabetes have been much more happy with their GLP-1 expertise than these with sort 2 diabetes (86.8 % and 83.2 %, respectively). And a large share of our respondents reported being “extraordinarily happy” with their present therapy, together with:

• 42.4 % of Trulicity customers
• 41.8 % of Ozempic customers
• 51.3 % of Mounjaro customers

 GLP-1 Medication Create Optimism

The sort 1 diabetes group usually seems to be to the long run. Glucose administration know-how has improved in a big approach lately, and there are even higher CGMs, insulin pumps, and insulins within the growth pipeline. On the similar time, there’s loads of skepticism {that a} treatment to the illness — stated to be “5 years away” for many years — will ever be discovered.

Once we requested our panel, we discovered one thing exceptional: Those that at the moment use a GLP-1 RA therapy have been much more more likely to have an optimistic view of the way forward for sort 1 diabetes care.

Of these with sort 1 diabetes, 41.2 % of customers reported feeling optimistic, in contrast with simply 5.6 % of nonusers. The discovering means that medication like Ozempic and Mounjaro are efficient sufficient to meaningfully change the outlook of customers. 

GLP-1 Medication Have Turn into ‘Extraordinarily Essential’ to Customers 

Medication equivalent to Ozempic and Mounjaro are more and more seen as a first-line therapy for sort 2 diabetes; for many individuals with the situation, a GLP-1 is a very powerful drug they take. That can by no means be the case for these with sort 1 diabetes, who nonetheless want day by day insulin injections or infusions to reside.

However, once we requested GLP-1 RA customers how necessary these medication have been of their general administration of diabetes, we have been shocked by the outcomes. Customers with sort 1 diabetes have been nearly as doubtless (32.8 %) to say that their GLP-1 drug was “extraordinarily necessary” as customers with sort 2 diabetes (35.6 %).

Unsurprisingly, individuals who don’t use these medication are far much less doubtless (six occasions much less doubtless) to name GLP-1s “extraordinarily necessary” within the administration of sort 1 diabetes.

GLP-1 customers categorical excessive satisfaction and present exceptional optimism about the way forward for diabetes care, emphasizing the significance of those remedies. These findings reinforce the affect of affected person views, fueling hope for a extra optimistic and promising diabetes panorama.

Remedy Language Might Be a Turnoff

Responding as to if media portrayal of GLP-1 RAs as a treatment for diabetes has influenced their expectations concerning their efficacy, 54.7 % of sufferers expressed that this was not the case. These with sort 1 diabetes have been significantly much less doubtless than these with sort 2 to be influenced by “treatment language.” Whereas 21.6 % of these with sort 2 diabetes stated this kind of messaging would alter their notion of efficacy, solely 10.2 % of these with sort 1 diabetes acknowledged as such.

Remedy language was usually considered with skepticism and seemed to be a turnoff for some respondents. 

 “Plenty of folks take the phrase treatment actually — and instantly. It has been promised to all diabetics for many years but has by no means been delivered,” stated one respondent.

Some have been extra blunt: “Bullshit. It helps handle it however isn’t a treatment.”

Finally, GLP-1 RAs have been met with overwhelmingly optimistic sentiment from sufferers and could also be more practical (and appreciated) by sufferers with sort 1 diabetes than is usually realized. No matter media buzz across the potential for “curing” diabetes, most sufferers preserve affordable efficacy expectations. We foresee a resilient future for GLP-1s in diabetes care.