Research shows Ozempic reduced the risk of opioid overdose

People with a history of opioid abuse who took Novo Nordisk's Ozempic were less likely to overdose, according to a study that adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting it may help manage addiction.

Patients on semaglutide, the key ingredient in Novo's diabetes drug Ozempic and its weight-loss shot Wegovy, were less than half as likely to overdose as those on insulin, according to the study, published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. Those taking semaglutide were 63% less likely to overdose than those taking DPP-4 inhibitors, a widely used type of diabetes pill.

The decrease was remarkable, said Rong Xu, a professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western Reserve University, who led the study. Her team had previously linked semaglutide to a reduction in both alcohol use disorder and smoking. This is the first time a study of this size has looked at opioid overdoses, Xu said.

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As the use of powerful new weight-loss drugs spreads, interest is growing in whether the medicines can blunt not just appetite but also cravings for other substances. While drugmakers have been reluctant to dive into the area, Novo is looking at alcohol consumption in a trial that started this year.

Findings from the Case Western study "point to the possibility that GLP-1 medications may have value in helping to prevent opioid overdoses," Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health and a coauthor of the study said in a statement. "This further emphasizes the need for more research – including randomized clinical trials – to investigate the potential role that GLP-1 drugs could play in both treating addiction and, in the process, reducing the risk of overdose."

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NIDA is currently funding a few different research projects looking into the potential of GLP-1 medications to help treat opioid use disorder, a spokesperson said.

The Case Western study used medical records to create a database of patients with similar characteristics and followed them for a year to see if they needed medical care for an overdose. It included people with an opioid use disorder, without being able to adjust for whether they were active addicts, Xu said. All the patients also had type 2 diabetes, and about two-thirds had obesity.

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The reduced risk with semaglutide held true compared to most other diabetes drug types, including older medicines that work in a similar way to Ozempic, with the exception of Eli Lilly's Trulicity. The researchers didn't compare the Novo drugs with Lilly's newer diabetes shot, Mounjaro.