GLP-1s are being tested for uses beyond weight loss and diabetes

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Good afternoon! The list of potential health benefits of a booming class of weight loss and diabetes drugs just keeps growing.

New data from Tuesday's mid-stage trial showed that New NordiskThe older, once-daily GLP-1 drug for diabetes and obesity, called liraglutide, may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease by protecting patients' brains.

Just a day earlier, a new study found that semaglutide (the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk's weight-loss injection Wegovy and its diabetes equivalent Ozempic) may also help people quit smoking.

These GLP-1 treatments mimic hormones produced in the gut to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar. Researchers also believe the drugs may help treat other diseases through additional effects on the body, such as reducing inflammation.

But much more research is needed to confirm this. Larger, longer trials are also needed before regulators can approve any weight-loss and diabetes drugs for additional uses.

In the first major step toward allowing broader use of the drugs, the Food and Drug Administration in March approved Wegovy for reducing the risk of serious heart complications.

Additional approvals for the drug and other weight-loss medications could put more pressure on insurers to cover the treatments, many of which can cost about $1,000 a month. Spotty insurance coverage for Wegovy and other weight-loss treatments has been a major barrier to patient access.

Here are some of the other conditions for which GLP-1s are being tested:

Cardiovascular health

• Novo Nordisk's Wegovy reduced the overall risk of heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular causes by 20% in patients with obesity and heart disease in a late-stage trial.
• Wegovy helped people with obesity, diabetes and heart failure have fewer cardiovascular symptoms such as fatigue and shortness of breath in a large trial.
• Eli Lilly is conducting a late-stage clinical trial of tirzepatide (the active ingredient in its weight-loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro) for patients with obesity and heart failure. The study is expected to conclude this month.

Chronic kidney disease

• Novo Nordisk's Ozempic slowed the progression of chronic kidney disease in patients with diabetes, reducing the risk of death from the disease and major cardiac events by 24% in a late-stage trial.
• Eli Lilly is studying tirzepatide in a mid-phase study in patients with obesity and chronic kidney disease. The trial is expected to be completed in 2026.

Fatty liver disease

• Eli Lilly's Zepbound helped up to 74% of patients become disease-free with no worsening of liver scarring, compared with 13% of people who didn't get the treatment at 52 weeks in a mid-stage trial.
• Novo Nordisk is studying semaglutide in a late-stage trial for a common type of fatty liver disease.
• Other drug manufacturers, such as Zealand Pharma, Viking Therapeuticsand Altimmune They are also studying their respective treatments for weight loss or diabetes in patients with fatty liver disease.

Sleep apnea

• Eli Lilly's Zepbound helped resolve moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea in up to 52% of patients in two late-stage trials. The FDA is currently evaluating Zepbound's use.

Alzheimer disease

Addiction

• External researchers are studying the potential of GLP-1s to curb addictive behaviors, including nicotine and alcohol use.
• Novo Nordisk is planning a study with a secondary goal of seeing whether semaglutide and other treatments can change daily alcohol consumption, according to the U.S. government's clinical trials registry. The primary goal of the mid-stage trial is to measure the impact of the drugs on liver healing in patients with alcohol-related liver disease.

Feel free to send tips, advice, story ideas and information to Annika at [email protected].

Commure and Augmedix executives share details about new acquisition

The healthcare industry can't get enough of AI documentation tools. Just ask the CEOs of Commure and Augmedix.

Commure offers a suite of solutions, including an AI-powered scribe and a revenue cycle service, designed to help reduce the administrative workload for physicians. The company was co-founded in 2017 by Hemant Taneja, CEO and managing director of venture capital firm General Catalyst.

Earlier this month, Commure revealed a new addition to its portfolio: it is acquiring a separate AI transcription company called Augmedix.

Founded in 2012, Augmedix was one of the first companies to introduce AI-powered environmental medical documentation to hospitals and healthcare systems. These tools help doctors save time by recording their conversations with patients and automatically converting them into clinical notes and summaries using AI. Augmedix specializes in deploying the technology in settings like emergency departments.

On July 19, Commure agreed to take Augmedix private in an all-cash deal. Commure will purchase all of Augmedix’s outstanding common stock for a total equity value of approximately $139 million, according to a statement. Augmedix shareholders will receive $2.35 per share. The company’s board of directors unanimously approved the deal, according to the statement.

CNBC sat down with Commure CEO Tanay Tandon and Augmedix CEO Manny Krakaris on Monday to learn a little more about the acquisition and what it means for both organizations.

Tandon said the two companies initially met to discuss partnership opportunities, as both are vendors for HCA Healthcare, one of the largest health systems in the U.S. But as discussions progressed, he said they realized the organizations could come together in a more comprehensive way.

Commure already has an environmental documentation tool, but it specializes in outpatient and ambulatory settings, while Augmedix’s offering specializes in acute care settings. The companies decided to bring the tools together to minimize the friction that can arise when documenting separate parts of a patient’s care.

“You have to have documentation that covers the entire trip. It doesn't stop only when you leave the country.” [emergency department]”And then restart again when they're admitted to the hospital as an inpatient,” Krakaris said. “Nowadays, there's a whole massive, laborious step to try to bridge those two worlds.”

Tandon said there is a lot of noise in the AI-powered scribe market and expects there to be a segmentation between high-end scribes who automate simple tasks and enterprise-level scribes who integrate more deeply with electronic medical records and revenue cycles.

Commure is interested in building the latter, and Krakaris said the real value of the Augmedix acquisition will come from bringing together the tools and combining the back-end technologies into a single platform.

“It's below the surface, it's like an iceberg, but that's where the value is created,” he said. “It's not something you can see very well from the app itself.”

In the short term, Commure and Augmedix are working on the relevant approvals and finalizing the agreement with shareholders. Once this is complete, they will begin planning new deployments and approaching customers with the combined solution.

The companies are still deciding exactly what the acquisition will mean for the Augmedix brand, but it will likely be something along the lines of “Augmedix powered by Commure,” Tandon said.

“If we do this integration right and if we do our job here right, there will be a first-class product that will really solve a lot of these problems in the office and also all the tasks that occur after the patient has left,” he said.

Read the full statement on the agreement here.

Feel free to send tips, advice, story ideas and information to Ashley at [email protected].