By Dominic Chopping


The European Union's drug regulator found no link between the class of medicines behind Novo Nordisk's blockbuster Ozempic and Wegovy treatments and reports of suicidal thoughts in patients.

A study by a European Medicines Agency committee had been looking at potential links between the popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs and reports of suicidal and self-harming thoughts from people using them, but it said Friday that the evidence doesn't support a causal association.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration came to the same conclusion in January while British health authorities are carrying out their own review.

Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy share the same active ingredient, semaglutide, which belongs to a class of drug known as GLP-1 and works by mimicking a hormone to produce more insulin, lower blood glucose and slow stomach emptying after eating, helping to treat both type 2 diabetes and obesity.

The regulator's committee studied both treatments as well as several other medications that use GLP-1s, including diabetes drugs such as AstraZeneca's Byetta, Sanofi's Lyxumia and Eli Lilly's Trulicity.

The probe started in July last year following reports of suicidal thoughts from patients using the medicines and the committee requested additional data from the pharmaceutical companies on the medications in November.

The committee analyzed the results of a large study based on health records that tracked the incidence of suicidal thoughts in obesity and type 2 diabetes patients using either semaglutide or non-GLP-1 drugs. It also conducted its own study based on health records to examine the risks of suicide or self harm in type 2 diabetes patients using GLP-1 drugs.

The study didn't include Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound diabetes and weight-loss drugs, which work slightly differently to traditional GLP-1 medications.


Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-12-24 1009ET