This visitor submit was written by our pal (and former Diabetes Each day staffer) Maria Muccioli, PhD. Maria is the lead researcher at Thrivable, a number one market analysis agency that makes a speciality of diabetes affected person experiences. Thrivable maintains panels of hundreds of actual individuals from the diabetes group to assist healthcare organizations deeply perceive affected person habits out there.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are a category of medicines accepted to handle kind 2 diabetes. These medicine, together with the well-known semaglutide (Ozempic) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro), improve insulin secretion and suppress glucagon launch, thereby regulating blood glucose ranges. They’re terribly efficient for weight reduction and might result in a decreased reliance on insulin injections or different glucose-lowering drugs.
Whereas these expensive medicine appear marvelous for kind 2 diabetes and weight problems, we wished to know what individuals with kind 1 diabetes thought. We dove into sufferers’ experiences and opinions. Leveraging our proprietary affected person panel, we explored how sufferers understand and expertise GLP-1 RAs as instruments in diabetes administration.
Let’s get into the info.
Excessive Off-Label Use of GLP-1 Medicine by Folks With Sort 1
Whereas GLP-1s have but to be accepted by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) for kind 1 diabetes administration, their use is more and more widespread. In our full panel of over 15,000 individuals with kind 1 diabetes, 4.5 p.c of adults are utilizing a GLP-1 like Ozempic off-label.
It’s clear {that a} sizable proportion of individuals with kind 1 diabetes are looking for out these drugs. Current analysis factors to some putting advantages of those remedy choices for kind 1 diabetes, and notably additionally in newly recognized sufferers, reminiscent of:
- Average weight reduction
- Glycemic management
- Ldl cholesterol discount
- Therapy security profile
The members of our panel report related advantages; many respondents with kind 1 diabetes named weight reduction, improved blood sugar outcomes, and decrease insulin necessities as among the perks of utilizing a GLP-1. Some selection quotes:
“My A1C is at an all-time low, my blood sugars are in a gentle vary, and my insulin consumption is considerably decreased.”
“Effectively after years, and I imply years, of an unlimited quantity of diets and train to decrease my A1C, nothing had any results. Then this medicine modified every little thing for me.”
“I’ve misplaced 40 kilos and my A1C has dropped to six p.c from 8 p.c.”
In fact, not everybody has had such a constructive expertise. Some customers report that their GLP-1 drug has been ineffective or that the negative effects (usually gastrointestinal misery) have been an excessive amount of to deal with. Others complained that they have been unable to afford these medicine or that they have been inconceivable to seek out on account of shortages.
Ongoing analysis into the security and efficacy of GLP-1 RA for kind 1 diabetes, coupled with the obvious demand, may flip the sort 1 section into a major income driver.
GLP-1 Customers Love Their New Medicine
In a survey of over 800 individuals with diabetes (carried out in January 2024), 84 p.c of individuals with diabetes who at present use a GLP-1 RA medicine reported a really constructive or considerably constructive expertise. These findings are according to earlier findings from our 2023 report, the place a survey of over 2,000 individuals with kind 2 diabetes additionally revealed that 84 p.c of present GLP-1 RA customers have been happy with their remedy.
Apparently, individuals with kind 1 diabetes have been much more happy with their GLP-1 expertise than these with kind 2 diabetes (86.8 p.c and 83.2 p.c, respectively). And a large proportion of our respondents reported being “extraordinarily happy” with their present remedy, together with:
- 42.4 p.c of Trulicity customers
- 41.8 p.c of Ozempic customers
- 51.3 p.c of Mounjaro customers
GLP-1 Medicine Create Optimism
The kind 1 diabetes group typically seems to the long run. Glucose administration expertise has improved in a major method lately, and there are even higher CGMs, insulin pumps, and insulins within the improvement pipeline. On the similar time, there’s loads of skepticism {that a} remedy to the illness — stated to be “5 years away” for many years — will ever be discovered.
Once we requested our panel, we discovered one thing outstanding: Those that at present use a GLP-1 RA remedy have been much more more likely to have an optimistic view of the way forward for kind 1 diabetes care.
Of these with kind 1 diabetes, 41.2 p.c of customers reported feeling optimistic, in contrast with simply 5.6 p.c of nonusers. The discovering means that medicine like Ozempic and Mounjaro are efficient sufficient to meaningfully change the outlook of customers.
GLP-1 Medicine Have Develop into ‘Extraordinarily Essential’ to Customers
Medicine reminiscent of Ozempic and Mounjaro are more and more seen as a first-line remedy for kind 2 diabetes; for many individuals with the situation, a GLP-1 is an important drug they take. That can by no means be the case for these with kind 1 diabetes, who nonetheless want day by day insulin injections or infusions to dwell.
However, after we requested GLP-1 RA customers how necessary these medicine have been of their general administration of diabetes, we have been stunned by the outcomes. Customers with kind 1 diabetes have been nearly as probably (32.8 p.c) to say that their GLP-1 drug was “extraordinarily necessary” as customers with kind 2 diabetes (35.6 p.c).
Unsurprisingly, individuals who don’t use these medicine are far much less probably (six occasions much less probably) to name GLP-1s “extraordinarily necessary” within the administration of kind 1 diabetes.
GLP-1 customers specific excessive satisfaction and present outstanding optimism about the way forward for diabetes care, emphasizing the significance of those therapies. These findings reinforce the influence of affected person views, fueling hope for a extra constructive and promising diabetes panorama.
Treatment Language Could Be a Turnoff
Responding as to whether media portrayal of GLP-1 RAs as a remedy for diabetes has influenced their expectations relating to their efficacy, 54.7 p.c of sufferers expressed that this was not the case. These with kind 1 diabetes have been significantly much less probably than these with kind 2 to be influenced by “remedy language.” Whereas 21.6 p.c of these with kind 2 diabetes stated this sort of messaging would alter their notion of efficacy, solely 10.2 p.c of these with kind 1 diabetes said as such.
Treatment language was typically considered with skepticism and seemed to be a turnoff for some respondents.
“A lot of individuals take the phrase remedy actually — and instantly. It has been promised to all diabetics for many years but has by no means been delivered,” stated one respondent.
Some have been extra blunt: “Bullshit. It helps handle it however isn’t a remedy.”
In the end, GLP-1 RAs have been met with overwhelmingly constructive sentiment from sufferers and could also be simpler (and appreciated) by sufferers with kind 1 diabetes than is mostly realized. No matter media buzz across the potential for “curing” diabetes, most sufferers preserve affordable efficacy expectations. We foresee a resilient future for GLP-1s in diabetes care.
