Professor Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, Dr Thomas Kruse and Dr Jesper Lau of Novo Nordisk – a leading global pharmaceutical company – have played central roles in the discovery and development of the medicine, which has reshaped the treatment of type 2 diabetes and chronic weight management worldwide.
In recognition of this achievement, the trio have been awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics. The prize is presented every two years for a major recent advance in practical therapeutic treatment.
Global crisis
Obesity and cardiometabolic disease are among the most pressing global health challenges, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and certain cancers.
Hundreds of millions of people are affected worldwide, placing significant strain on health systems.
In response to this growing crisis, researchers have developed therapies targeting the biological drivers of appetite and metabolism. One of the most significant advances has been semaglutide – a medicine that mimics a natural hormone to control blood sugar and reduce appetite.
Scientific breakthrough
Award-winning scientists Professor Knudsen, Dr Kruse and Dr Lau were central to semaglutide’s development, building on decades of metabolic research.
Novo Nordisk researchers first began taking an interest in the naturally-occurring hormone glucagon-like peptide-1, known as GLP-1, in the early 1990s. GLP-1 had been identified by academic researchers in the 1980s but the hormone broke down too quickly in the body to be clinically useful.
Determined to overcome that limitation, researchers at Novo Nordisk re-engineered the natural hormone to extend its action. The first major breakthrough, led by Professor Knudsen, was liraglutide, approved in 2010 in the United States as Victoza for type 2 diabetes.
Dr Kruse and Dr Lau led the work to develop a GLP-1 compound with increased half-life and improved stability so it could be taken just once a week. The result was semaglutide.
It was approved in 2017 as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and in 2021 as Wegovy for chronic weight management. Clinical trials demonstrated substantial and sustained weight loss, alongside reductions in cardiovascular risk among people with obesity and established heart disease.