New diabetes drug may lower or eliminate need for insulin in diabetics, new study says

“If these findings are borne out in larger studies over extended follow-up periods, it could possibly be the most dramatic change in treating Type 1 diabetes since the discovery of insulin in 1921,” said Dr. Paresh Dandona, senior author of the study, first published online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Semaglutide – whose trade names include Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus – have taken endocrinology practices by storm, intriguing medical researchers who began to see remarkable results in some patients during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These drugs have already transformed, and will gradually transform even more, the whole shape of diabetes and obesity,” Dandona said. “Our findings from this admittedly small study are, nevertheless, so promising for newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes patients that we are now absolutely focused on pursuing a larger study for a longer period of time.” 

Ten patients at the UB Clinical Research Center in the Division of Endocrinology were studied from 2020 to 2022, after each was diagnosed within the previous six months with Type 1 diabetes.