Novo Nordisk Begins a 240 Person Study of Wegovy for Alcohol Use
GLP-1 medications have the potential bring effective addiction treatment to millions of people.
Novo Nordisk has just announced that they are launching a study of Wegovy (semaglutide) for alcohol use disorder.
Beginning May 20, the company will enroll 240 patients with alcohol-related liver disease. Study participants will be randomly assigned to receive either a placebo, liver medication NNC0194-0499, semaglutide, cagrilintide (an amylin-analog), or a combination. The trial will also assess the treatments' effects on liver damage in addition to alcohol use.
Yesterday we published a detailed article on the growing medical and strategic evidence for using GLP-1s to treat addiction. These medications represent the first ever opportunity to scale addiction treatment to the millions of people who need it.
Recently Morgan Stanley warned investors that alcohol brands were at risk of declining sales due to GLP-1 drugs.
Patient reports on the impact of semaglutide (Ozempic / Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro / Zepbound) on alcohol consumption have been dramatic, even when reducing drinking was not a goal of the patient:
“I love drinking. I absolutely do. There's nothing better to me than a summer night outside listening to some live music with your friends enjoying a few beverages. But I just can't anymore.
It doesn't make me physically ill at all, my brain just says, "Nope, you're done." I can't even explain it because I want to drink but I'm just completely done after one or two.
It's kind of annoying if I'm being honest but I definitely wouldn't go backwards and am extremely grateful for Monjouro.”
You can read dozens more patient reports here about how GLP-1s have reduced their urge to drink.
Research published in the past few months has dramatically strengthened the case for using GLP-1s to treat addiction across substances.
More coverage: