“Everything we test has a positive effect!” Bernard Thorens, a diabetes specialist at the Integrative Genomics Center at the University of Lausanne, is the man who discovered the GLP-1 receptor in the 1990s – in other words, the receptor that all drugs that will be targeted by later named analogues of GLP-1, from Ozempic to Wégovy. Today, he cannot believe the multiplicity of positive effects that we have discovered for these molecules. He talks about “miracle drug”masking his enthusiasm as best he could behind the strict conditional.
Bernard Thorens, professor at UNIL and discoverer of the GLP-1 receptor | UNIL
The price of buzz
The price of glory? No doubt, but it is also partly the result of a strategy of pharmaceutical laboratories. They are increasing the number of large phase 3 and 4 clinical trials, in order to find new indications and positive effects likely to expand the market for these molecules. This would also make it possible to extend the validity of patents – those protecting GLP-1 marketed today for diabetes and obesity will expire between 2026 and 2036 – and to convince health insurers to reimburse better than they do today. today.
This strategy is obvious but, in itself, it does not mean that GLP-1 analogues do not have these multiple effects that are attributed to them. We will try to see clearly.
