CNN
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Advisers to the World Well being Group will take into account subsequent month whether or not so as to add liraglutide, the energetic ingredient in sure diabetes and weight problems drugs, to its checklist of important medicines.
The checklist, which is up to date each two years, consists of medicines “that fulfill the precedence well being wants of the inhabitants,” WHO says. “They’re meant to be accessible inside the context of perform well being programs always, in ample quantities within the acceptable dosage types, of assured high quality and at costs that people and the neighborhood can afford.”
The checklist is “a information for the event and updating of nationwide and institutional important drugs lists to assist the procurement and provide of medicines within the public sector, medicines reimbursement schemes, drugs donations, and native drugs manufacturing.”
The WHO Professional Committee on the Choice and Use of Important Medicines is scheduled to fulfill April 24-28 to debate revisions and updates involving dozens of medicines. The request so as to add GLP-1 receptor agonists resembling liraglutide got here from 4 researchers at US establishments together with Yale College and Brigham and Girls’s Hospital.
These medicine mimic the results of an appetite-regulating hormone, GLP-1, and stimulate the discharge of insulin. This helps decrease blood sugar and slows the passage of meals via the intestine. Liraglutide was developed to deal with diabetes however permitted within the US as a weight-loss remedy in 2014; its stronger cousin, semaglutide, has been permitted for diabetes since 2017 and as an weight problems remedy in 2021.
The latter use has grow to be well-known because of promotions from celebrities and on social media. It’s offered below the identify Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight reduction. Research recommend that semaglutide might assist individuals lose a mean of 10% to fifteen% of their beginning weight – considerably greater than with different drugs. However due to this excessive demand, some variations of the medicine have been in scarcity within the US for the reason that center of final 12 months.
The US patent on liraglutide is ready to run out this 12 months, and drugmaker Novo Nordisk says generic variations may very well be accessible in June 2024.
The corporate has not been concerned within the utility to WHO, it mentioned in a press release, however “we welcome the WHO assessment and look ahead to the readout and determination.”
“At current, there are not any drugs included within the [Essential Medicines List] that particularly goal weight reduction for the worldwide burden of weight problems,” the researchers wrote of their request to WHO. “At the moment, the EML consists of mineral dietary supplements for dietary deficiencies but it is usually described that a lot of the inhabitants dwell in ‘nations the place chubby and weight problems kills extra individuals than underweight.’ “
WHO’s advisers will make suggestions on which medicine needs to be included on this 12 months’s checklist, anticipated to return in September.
“This specific drug has a sure historical past, however using it in all probability has not been lengthy sufficient to have the ability to see it on the Important Medicines Listing,” Dr. Francesco Blanca, WHO director for diet and meals security, mentioned at a briefing Wednesday. “There’s additionally points associated to the price of the remedy. On the similar time, WHO is using medicine to scale back weight extra within the context of a scientific assessment for pointers for kids and adolescents. So we consider that it’s a work in progress, however we’ll see what the Important Medicines Listing committee goes to conclude.”
