This visitor submit was written by our buddy (and former Diabetes Every 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 1000’s 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 authorised 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 may result in a decreased reliance on insulin injections or different glucose-lowering medicines.
Whereas these dear 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 information.
Excessive Off-label Use of GLP-1 Medicine by Folks with Type 1
Whereas GLP-1s have but to be authorised by the FDA for kind 1 diabetes administration, their use is more and more frequent. In our full panel of over 15,000 individuals with kind 1 diabetes, 4.5 % 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 in search of out these medicines. Current analysis factors to some hanging advantages of those remedy choices for kind 1 diabetes, and notably additionally in newly recognized sufferers, akin to:
- Average weight reduction
- Glycemic management
- Ldl cholesterol discount
- Remedy 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 a number of 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 remedy modified all the pieces for me.”
“I’ve misplaced 40 kilos and my A1C has dropped to six % from 8 %.”
In fact, not everybody has had such a constructive expertise. Some customers report that their GLP-1 drug has been ineffective or that the unwanted side 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 not possible to search 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 phase into a big income driver.
GLP-1 Customers Love Their New Medicine
In a survey of over 800 individuals with diabetes (performed in January 2024), 84 % of individuals with diabetes who at present use a GLP-1 RA remedy reported a really constructive or considerably constructive expertise. These findings are in line with earlier findings from our 2023 report, the place a survey of over 2,000 individuals with kind 2 diabetes additionally revealed that 84 % of present GLP-1 RA customers have been happy with their therapy.
Apparently, individuals with kind 1 diabetes have been much more happy with their GLP-1 expertise than these with kind 2 diabetes (86.8 % and 83.2 % respectively). And a large share of our respondents reported being “extraordinarily happy” with their present therapy, together with:
- 42.4 % of Trulicity customers
- 41.8 % of Ozempic customers
- 51.3 % of Mounjaro customers
GLP-1 Medicine Create Optimism
The sort 1 diabetes group usually appears to the longer term. Glucose administration know-how has improved in a big approach lately, and there are even higher CGMs, insulin pumps, and insulins within the improvement pipeline. On the identical 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.
After we requested our panel, we discovered one thing outstanding: Those that at present use a GLP-1 RA therapy have been much more prone to have an optimistic view of the way forward for kind 1 diabetes care.
Of these with kind 1 diabetes, 41.2 % of customers reported feeling optimistic, in comparison with simply 5.6 % of non-users. The discovering means that medicine like Ozempic and Mounjaro are efficient sufficient to meaningfully change the outlook of customers.
GLP-1 Medicine Have Grow to be “Extraordinarily Necessary” to Customers
Medicine akin to Ozempic and Mounjaro are more and more seen as a first-line therapy for kind 2 diabetes; for many individuals with the situation, a GLP-1 is a very powerful drug that they take. That may by no means be the case for these with kind 1 diabetes, who nonetheless want every day insulin injections or infusions to dwell.
However, once we requested GLP-1 RA customers how necessary these medicine have been of their general administration of diabetes, we have been shocked by the outcomes. Customers with kind 1 diabetes have been nearly as seemingly (32.8%) to say that their GLP-1 drug was “extraordinarily necessary” as customers with kind 2 diabetes (35.6%).
Unsurprisingly, individuals who don’t use these medicine are far much less seemingly (6 occasions much less seemingly) 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.
Remedy Language Might Be a Flip-Off
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 % of sufferers expressed that this was not the case. These with kind 1 diabetes have been significantly much less seemingly than these with kind 2 to be influenced by “remedy language.” Whereas 21.6 % of these with kind 2 diabetes stated the sort of messaging would alter their notion of efficacy, solely 10.2 % of these with kind 1 diabetes said as such.
Remedy language was usually considered with skepticism and seemed to be a turn-off for some respondents.
“A number 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.
