Top in endocrinology: Prior therapy affects semaglutide results; diabetes expenses triple

Adults who had not used a previous obesity medication lost more weight after receiving semaglutide than those who did, according to a study published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

The study included 305 adult participants with overweight or obesity who received once-weekly subcutaneous semaglutide (Wegovy, Novo Nordisk) over several years. At 12 months, patients who had never taken a prior obesity medication lost 14.3% of their body weight with semaglutide. Meanwhile, adults who used a previous medication had a lesser weight reduction of 10.6%.

“It is of utmost importance to tailor treatment based on a patient’s genes, environment and previous medication use to improve overall outcomes, decrease patients’ exposure to a drug that might not be effective and be considerate of the financial burden that patients may endure,” Andres J. Acosta, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues wrote in the study.

It was the top story in endocrinology last week.

Another top story was about an increase in annual expenditures for diabetes medications, including insulin, incretin mimetics, DPP-IV inhibitors and combination drugs, which more than tripled in the United States from 2011 to 2020.

Read these and more top stories in endocrinology below:

Adults receiving semaglutide as their first obesity medication lose more weight

Adults who previously used an obesity medication before receiving semaglutide lost less body weight at 12 months than those who did not use an obesity medication before semaglutide, according to study findings. Read more.

Diabetes drugs helping to drive rise in US medication expenditures

Annual expenditures for diabetes medications more than tripled in the U.S. from 2011 to 2020, and the increase played a role in an overall rise in money spent on prescription drugs, according to study findings. Read more.

Low level of regret for treatment decision for most adults with low-risk thyroid cancer

Adults with low-risk papillary thyroid cancer reported low levels of decision regret for their disease management choice at 1 year, regardless of whether they chose active surveillance or surgery, according to findings published in Thyroid. Read more.

Low-fat vegan diet tied to improved insulin sensitivity for adults with type 1 diabetes

The use of racial-ethnic adjustments in the U.S. version of the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool may be underestimating fractures among underrepresented groups, and new, more accurate tools are needed, according to a task force report. Read more.

Investigational Cushing’s syndrome medication reduces BP, glucose in open-label trial

Adults with endogenous Cushing’s syndrome had reductions in blood pressure and glucose at 22 weeks of treatment with a selective cortisol modulator, according to topline results from the open-label portion of the GRACE phase 3 trial. Read more.