‘Miracle Drugs’ for Weight Loss Can Also Halt Kidney Disease

Weight-loss shots such as Ozempic and Wegovy could also tackle life-threatening kidney diseases and save thousands of patients from the need for dialysis or a transplant, research shows.

The drug, also known as semaglutide, was originally intended to treat diabetes, but it has also proven highly effective in combating obesity, with patients taking the highest doses losing a fifth of their weight.

The Mail on Sunday can now reveal that people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) could become the latest patients to be offered the treatment on the NHS, as the health service tries to combat the growing problem.

CKD occurs when the two organs – which remove waste products from the blood and produce urine – no longer work as well as they should. It usually gets worse over time and the damage cannot be reversed.

The condition affects 7.2 million Britons, but this number is expected to rise by around 400,000 over the next decade, mainly due to rising rates of high blood pressure and obesity – a leading cause of chronic kidney disease. The number of CKD patients requiring life-saving dialysis treatment when connected to a blood-cleansing machine several times a week is expected to quadruple in that time, which could cost the taxpayer £5 billion a year.

But researchers argue that offering early treatment with semaglutide would be a breakthrough solution that could prevent the health care system from becoming overwhelmed.

“This drug could completely change the way we treat kidney disease,” said Professor Katherine Tuttle, a kidney researcher at the University of Washington who is leading a large semaglutide trial.

“We could save so many lives, and thousands from the need for dialysis or the fear of needing a new organ.”

She adds: ‘We are in a revolutionary time for kidney disease – this could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in medical history.’

Although people with high blood pressure and diabetes are at the highest risk for developing CKD, the condition also significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes, which are the most common causes of death for advanced CKD patients.

Semaglutide is part of a class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, the first of which were developed nearly two decades ago for type 2 diabetes. These medications mimic the GLP-1 hormone in the intestines that helps release insulin – another hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. Scientists also found that they suppressed appetite, leading to weight loss.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak praised the drug last year and announced a pilot scheme that would see GPs offer the weekly injection to obese patients – but its huge popularity as a weight-loss treatment has created shortages worldwide leaving diabetics struggling to regain vitality. supplies.

However, weight loss wasn’t the only unintended side effect of GLP-1 drugs discovered by researchers.

A 2018 study in the US found that patients with kidney disease who took another GLP-1 drug saw a significant reduction in a protein called albumin in their urine – a high amount can be a sign that the kidneys are not working properly .

“These were striking findings,” says Prof. Tuttle. ‘Patients had declining kidney function at the start of the trial, but saw their condition stabilize once they started taking a GLP-1 drug.’

A separate study published last year found that type 2 diabetics who also had kidney disease saw their condition stabilize after taking semaglutide. And late last year, Novo Nordisk – the manufacturer of semaglutide – prematurely ended a trial of the weekly shot after data appeared to show the drug was effective at slowing kidney disease.

Significantly, Prof Tuttle says the drug appears to be most effective in patients with severe kidney damage. “This could help patients who are about to need a transplant,” she adds.

This would be welcome news for the 5,000 patients in Britain waiting for a kidney transplant – NHS figures suggest many are waiting up to three years.

It is still unclear why semaglutide has such a pronounced effect on kidney disease.

‘It is possible that GLP-1 drugs have an anti-inflammatory effect,’ says Prof. Tuttle. ‘Kidney disease is often defined by scarring of the organ, but early studies suggest that GLP-1 agonists may protect patients from this damage.

“We hope that if patients are treated long enough, they can get better.”

Crucially, some data suggests that semaglutide may even heal these kidney scars, opening the door to healing.

If approved as a treatment for chronic kidney disease, experts say it would likely be given alongside other kidney medications. The NHS has already approved the rollout of two daily tablets, empagliflozin and dapagliflozin, which have been shown to reduce the risk of chronic kidney disease progression and death by almost a third.

‘We believe that combining semaglutide with these pills could reduce the risk of progression even further,’ says Prof Tuttle.

Kidney disease charities say it is crucial that the government finds a solution to Britain’s semaglutide shortage. Demand for the drug, fueled by support from celebrities like Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey – who used it to lose weight – has led to a global shortage. The Mail on Sunday last month revealed that the NHS expects this to last until 2025 due to high demand among dieters.

Health officials have repeatedly urged private weight-loss doctors not to prescribe the drug for any use other than diabetes care.

Save the shots for sick people like me

One patient with kidney disease already taking semaglutide is Dawn Cerruto, 52, who has lived with the condition for 26 years.

After being diagnosed, the New Jersey social worker underwent dialysis for three years before receiving a transplant.

Although her kidney disease has remained relatively stable since then, she later developed diabetes. That’s why she started semaglutide last year.

“At first I had some stomach aches and actually lost too much weight,” says Dawn. ‘But I now take a smaller dose and my diabetes is stable.’

Only recently did Dawn discover that the injection – which she gives herself once a week – could also prevent her kidney disease from worsening.

‘When I read that, I thought to myself, I think I’m on the right drug.

‘My doctors told me that the new kidney I have will probably last another ten years, but hopefully taking semaglutide will help extend that time.’

However, Dawn – who is also an ambassador for the charity American Kidney Fund – says the current global shortages of semaglutide are worrying her.

“It’s such good news that it can help prevent kidney disease from getting worse, but so many people use it because they just want to lose some weight,” she explains.

“There are patients like me who really need this drug, so it should only be considered a last resort for patients who are otherwise healthy.”