EU drug regulator finds no link between weight-loss drugs and suicidal thoughts

The review focused on medicines that contain either liraglutide or semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy. File picture

The European Union drug regulator has found no evidence, following a nine-month probe, that a class of diabetes and weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk's hugely popular Wegovy, are linked to suicidal thoughts.

The regulator's Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee, which monitors drugs' side-effects, said that no updates were required to the treatments' product information after reviewing the available evidence.

The finding comes after the European Medicines Agency extended in December its review into the class of weight-loss and diabetes drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, to get more data from drugmakers to further investigate the issue.

The analysis started in July after Iceland's health regulator flagged three cases of patients thinking about suicide or self-harm after using Novo's drugs. The review focused on medicines that contain either semaglutide or liraglutide, both GLP-1 targeting compounds.

Liraglutide is the active ingredient in Novo's weight-loss treatment Saxenda while semaglutide is the active ingredient in Wegovy and top-selling diabetes treatment Ozempic.

The committee said it had also analysed results from a recent study, which did not find a direct association between the use of semaglutide and suicidal thoughts.

Additionally, results from another study conducted by EMA in people with type 2 diabetes did not support any association between the use of GLP-1 drugs and risk of suicide-related and self-injury-related events.

GLP-1 receptor agonists, originally developed to help control blood sugar in patients with diabetes in Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Mounjaro developed by Eli Lilly also slow digestion and reduce hunger.