People with type 2 diabetes who were prescribed semaglutide, the drug marketed as Ozempic and Wegovy, had substantially fewer asthma attacks and COPD flare-ups than similar patients on other diabetes medications, according to a large real-world analysis presented this month at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona.
The research team, led by Chloe Bloom, a clinical associate professor of respiratory epidemiology at Imperial College London's National Heart and Lung Institute, mined UK electronic medical records for four parallel studies, each covering roughly 20,000 to 22,000 patients, comparing outcomes among people prescribed different GLP-1 receptor agonists and other diabetes drugs. Semaglutide use was associated with about 40 percent fewer asthma attacks and around 20 percent fewer COPD exacerbations, an effect the researchers say was more pronounced and statistically clearer for asthma than for COPD, where the association was borderline.
Notably, the benefit did not extend evenly across the GLP-1 drug class: older GLP-1 agonists, liraglutide, dulaglutide and exenatide, were not associated with meaningfully reduced airway exacerbations in the same analysis, a pattern the researchers describe as within-class heterogeneity, per coverage from Medical Xpress and ScienceDaily. That inconsistency, along with the possibility that people prescribed semaglutide differ from other patients in ways the analysis could not fully account for, such as being generally healthier or losing more weight, is why the authors are cautious about drawing firm conclusions.
The findings from this study are encouraging, but they should not change treatment decisions on their own.
Chloe Bloom, Imperial College London
Observational, not yet a trial
The results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal; they were presented as conference research, and the underlying design is observational rather than a randomized controlled trial, meaning it can show an association but cannot prove semaglutide caused the drop in exacerbations. Asthma and COPD are both linked to obesity and metabolic dysfunction, and GLP-1 drugs' anti-inflammatory and weight-loss effects offer plausible biological explanations for a benefit, but Bloom and colleagues say only a dedicated randomized trial, tracking asthma attacks, COPD exacerbations, lung function and quality of life as primary outcomes, can establish whether semaglutide actually improves airway disease. No such trial has yet been completed. Regulators have not approved semaglutide for asthma or COPD, and doctors are advised to continue prescribing it only for its approved uses in diabetes and weight management until stronger evidence emerges.
