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Following a months-long review, the EU regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), announced on Friday that there is no link between suicidal thoughts and weight-loss drugs such as semaglutide marketed by Novo Nordisk (NVO ).
Based on your own investigations and electronic health records of overweight and type 2 diabetes patients who received the drugs, the EMA said: “The results do not support a causal association between the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists and this risk.” .
The announcement followed this week’s meeting of the EMA’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) and is likely to remove a major hurdle for Novo (NVO) and its weight loss rival, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY).
In July 2023, the EMA launched an investigation into reports of suicidal thoughts and self-harm linked to semaglutide and liraglutide, the active ingredients in blockbuster drugs from Novo (NVO), Wegovy/Ozempic and Saxenda, respectively.
Subsequently, the investigation was expanded to include other GLP-1 receptor agonists on the market, such as Eli Lilly’s (LLY) blockbuster diabetes therapy Trulicity, Sanofi’s (SNY) Suliqua, and AstraZeneca’s (AZN) Bydureon ). In light of the latest findings, the PRAC said that drug manufacturers are not required to update product information to reflect the risk.