Once-weekly semaglutide safe, effective in type 2 diabetes patients

Initiating a once-weekly treatment regimen of semaglutide helps control glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and body weight in patients with type 2 diabetes, without introducing new safety concerns, a Japan study has found.

Researchers conducted a post hoc analysis of four Phase III studies conducted under the Trial to Evaluate Cardiovascular and Other Long-term Outcomes with Semaglutide in Subjects with Type 2 Diabetes (SUSTAIN) program.

In total, data from 2,310 participants were included in the present analysis, in whom mean HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose ranged from 8.0–8.4% and 8.6–9.7 mmol/L, respectively.

Across all four included studies, once-weekly semaglutide treatment led to substantial reductions in HbA1c levels, with magnitudes of effect ranging from –1.32 percent to –1.85 percent. A similar effect was reported in the subgroup of 312 Japanese patients, in whom HbA1c reductions ranged from –1.69 percent to –2.49 percent.

Moreover, the treatment regimen likewise led to a drop in relative bodyweight, decreasing by 4.0 percent to 7.3 percent in the overall study population. These effects were greater than both placebo and sitagliptin comparator arms across all four studies.

The post hoc analysis also detected no new safety concerns associated with the semaglutide regimen, with all emergent adverse events having already been reported in prior studies. Gastrointestinal toxicities were more common in the semaglutide vs placebo or sitagliptin arms, though none of the side effects led to death in the Japanese subgroup.

“Safety data collected during the studies did not show any new safety concerns with semaglutide among Japanese participants and support the usefulness of once-weekly semaglutide in this population,” the researcher said.