The development of today’s revolutionary weight-loss drugs like Ozempic has been a journey spanning nearly half a century, driven by relentless scientific curiosity and innovation. Researchers Joel Habener of Massachusetts General Hospital and Svetlana Mojsov of The Rockefeller University were recently honored with the prestigious Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for their pivotal roles in this groundbreaking work.
Sharing the award, often seen as a precursor to the Nobel Prize, with Novo Nordisk’s chief scientific adviser Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, the trio received an honorarium of $250,000. Their achievements come at a time when obesity has reached epidemic proportions worldwide, affecting 900 million people globally, including over 40% of Americans and nearly a quarter of Europeans. In China, one in six adults was reported as obese in 2020.
Habener, now 87, began his career in the mid-1970s with a focus on diabetes, specifically the hormone glucagon, which raises blood sugar levels—an effect counter to that of insulin. His goal was to understand and potentially regulate glucagon’s effects to improve diabetes management. However, his research hit a roadblock when the US National Institutes of Health imposed a ban on certain types of gene research.
This setback led Habener to pivot his research focus to the anglerfish, a unique species with an endocrine organ outside the pancreas. It was during this exploration that he made a significant breakthrough: isolating a precursor protein that gave rise to glucagon and another hormone resembling glucagon, which turned out to be the fish equivalent of GLP-1. This discovery laid the foundation for what would become a new class of diabetes and obesity drugs.
Svetlana Mojsov, who had emigrated to the United States from the former Yugoslavia, further advanced Habener’s early work. She accurately predicted the active form of GLP-1 and developed innovative methods to synthesize it. Mojsov also hypothesized that GLP-1 would be released in the intestines and trigger insulin production. Together with Habener, she demonstrated this effect through laboratory experiments and clinical trials, highlighting its therapeutic potential for diabetes.
However, at the time, the idea that hormones could regulate weight was not yet supported by scientific evidence. Subsequent studies revealed that GLP-1 not only helps control blood sugar levels but also slows stomach emptying and interacts with brain receptors to suppress appetite, potentially aiding in the treatment of obesity and even substance addictions.
In the 1990s, Knudsen and her team at Novo Nordisk built on these discoveries, developing GLP-1-based therapies like Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity. These treatments extended the drug’s effects from a few hours to over a week, making them more effective and convenient for patients.
While these GLP-1 drugs are often labeled as “miracle drugs,” Mojsov cautions against their use for cosmetic weight loss, as they can also reduce muscle mass, which is a serious concern. GLP-1 medications have also shown potential in treating cardiovascular disease and may even offer protective effects against dementia, though more research is needed to fully understand these benefits.
Looking ahead, Mojsov is optimistic about the future of GLP-1 therapies. She envisions a new generation of drugs with fewer side effects and broader applications, potentially revolutionizing the treatment of a wide range of health conditions.
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