Insurers are being encouraged to carefully monitor the trials being conducted using glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s), and consider their potential impact on disease incidence, prevalence and mortality outcomes in the future.

While group insurance sponsors grapple with whether to cover the diabetes drugs that are now being used for weight loss management, those concerned with mortality are being encouraged by the Reinsurance Group of America to consider the implications of wider deployment of the drugs in the treatment of a much broader range of diseases.

To help, the reinsurer’s recent whitepaper, GLP-1 Receptor Agonists: Changing the scales of human health, examines trials and ongoing trials of the medicines in treating cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart failure, mental health disorders, liver and kidney disorders, neurodegenerative disorders, sleep apnea, addiction disorders and a range of cancers.

“Insurers should carefully monitor these trials and consider GLP-1s’ potential impact on disease incidence, prevalence and mortality outcomes in the future,” they write.

Cardiovascular protective effects 

The report gets into specifics in looking at trials to treat CVD – the drugs have shown cardiovascular protective effects – the nervous system, as insulin resistance is a common feature in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinsons’s, addictive disorders, mental health, kidney disease and cancer. In some cases, the research being cited is based on an analysis of millions of patient records.

“In a study of more than 1.6-million patients with type 2 diabetes and no prior diagnosis of obesity related cancers, patients treated with GLP-1s had a significantly lower risk for 10 of the listed cancers,” they report. The drugs also reportedly help to treat neuroinflammation and can reduce lipid and blood pressure levels. In a study of diabetic patients being treated with the drugs were less likely to be treated with depression and anxiety.

“Studies have shown improvements in CVD and all-cause mortality in diabetic patients on GLP-1s,” they add. “Additional clinical trials are required to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of the different GLP-1s for disease management and for reducing cause-specific and all-cause mortality.”