In this article NOVO.B-DK Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Steve Christo - Corbis | Corbis News | Getty Images Novo Nordisk 's blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease , suggesting its potential to delay or prevent the memory-robbing condition, according to a study released Thursday. Semaglutide , the active ingredient in Ozempic, was associated with a 40% to 70% lower risk of a first-time Alzheimer's diagnosis in patients with Type 2 diabetes compared with seven other diabetes medications.
That includes insulin and older so-called GLP-1 drugs similar to Ozempic, the research said. Alzheimer's disease is often diagnosed in the mild dementia stage , when a person has significant trouble with memory and thinking. Almost 7 million Americans have the condition, the fifth-leading cause of death for adults over 65, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
But the number of Alzheimer's patients is projected to rise to almost 13 million in the U.S. by 2050.
There are no cures for Alzheimer's, only drugs that treat the symptoms of the disease or slow the progression of the condition in people at the early stages of it. But a potential preventive treatment such as semaglutide may prove even more useful, said lead study co-author Dr. Rong Xu, a biomedical informatics professor at Case Western Reserve University.
That's because by the time many patients are diagnosed with the disease, "it's often too late for treatment," Xu t.