News release

From: The Lancet

The Lancet: Oral semaglutide does not slow progression of Alzheimer’s disease, trials find

Oral semaglutide (a GLP-1 pill) is not effective at slowing progression in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease, finds the first large phase 3 randomised controlled trials on the topic published in The Lancet.

Early stage research, including animal studies, observational studies and clinical trials in people with type 2 diabetes and/or obesity, have suggested that GLP-1s could slow the progression of all-cause dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. The EVOKE and EVOKE+ trials are the first major phase 3 trials to investigate this possibility in people with early Alzheimer’s disease.

In the trials, roughly 3,800 patients aged 55-85 years with a confirmed diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and mild symptoms received either up to 14 mg of oral semaglutide daily or a placebo pill. After two years, there was no significant difference in disease progression in patients taking semaglutide and patients taking the placebo; a quarter of patients had completed an additional year with no difference in disease progression between the groups. In a subgroup of almost 200 patients, semaglutide led to significant reductions in several biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease, but this did not translate into any slowing of disease progression.