A treatment with Ozempic and other semaglutida drugs could stop, and even reverse, fatty liver disease in two thirds of patients, patients, … According to the results of a phase 3 clinical trial, published Thursday in New England Journal of Medicine. Non -alcoholic fatty liver disease, caused by excess fat in this organ and is usually related to obesity, was first treated with semaglutida, the base of the drug for diabetes and weight loss, ozempic. The results ensure that the fatty liver had been reduced by 62.9% of patients after 72 weeks.
Hepatic steatosis, as the disease is known, affects 25% of the Spanish population, according to data from the Spanish association for the study of the liver (AEEH), even children and can trigger cirrhosis, cancer and inflammation. It is considered a “potentially deadly” type of liver disease.
The semaglutida (present in Ozempic and Wegovy commercial denominations) also helped improve liver fibrosis in 36.8% of patients, to raise liver enzymes and lose up to 10% weight, indicates the study conducted at the King’s College in London and the University of Virginia Commonweal (United States). Compared to those who received placebo, the article ‘Phase 3 essay of semaglutida in the steatohepatitis associated with a metabolic dysfunction’ argues that the improvement indicators are around double (one in three improved their fatty liver only with a diet).
-Long term
The investigation was carried out with 800 patients, half with diabetes and 75% overweight, which were randomly selected to receive a weekly injection of 2.4 milligrams of semaglutida, and advice to improve healthy lifestyle habits. More than 250 medical centers from 37 countries between May and April 2023 participated, and this line of research on long -term therapies with Ozempic on liver diseases will be followed, for five years with about 1,200 patients. Now, the study was funded by the pharmaceutical company developed Ozempic, Novo Nordisk.
With “extremely promising” results that “provide real hope”, as defined by one of the main authors of the work, Philip Newsome, the semaglutida could be an “effective tool” for liver disorders, such as the fatty liver (also known by its acronym in English, ‘Mash’). However, it was reported that Ozempic caused unwanted side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, constipation and vomiting.
