Ozempic’s drug linked to fewer asthma attacks in a surprise study

New research presented at a major European lung disease conference suggests that semaglutide, the drug behind Ozempic and Wegovy, may be linked to substantially fewer asthma attacks and COPD flare-ups in people who take it. Because the findings come from an observational analysis of health records presented at a scientific congress rather than a peer-reviewed published trial, the researchers behind the work say it is not yet a reason to change how asthma or COPD is treated.

Four Parallel Studies Built From UK Health Records

The research was led by Professor Chloe Bloom of the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London and presented by Dr Bohee Lee at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Barcelona, held from September 5 to 9. Using electronic medical records from the United Kingdom, the team ran four parallel analyses, each covering between 20,000 and 22,000 adults who had started treatment with either a GLP-1 receptor agonist, the drug class that includes semaglutide, or a sulfonylurea, an older type of diabetes medication used for comparison. Researchers then compared how often people in each group went on to experience an asthma attack or a COPD flare-up after starting treatment.

The Semaglutide-Specific Numbers

The effect was strongest for semaglutide specifically. Among patients with asthma, starting semaglutide was associated with nearly a 40 per cent reduction in asthma attacks compared with starting a sulfonylurea, and with about a 20 per cent reduction in COPD flare-ups among patients with that condition. Other GLP-1 drugs included in the analysis, including liraglutide, dulaglutide and exenatide, were not associated with a reduction in airway attacks across the doses and patient groups studied, pointing to a difference between individual drugs within the same class rather than a blanket effect shared by every GLP-1 medication on the market.

Why Researchers Are Looking at a Diabetes Drug for the Lungs

GLP-1 receptor agonists are already widely prescribed for type 2 diabetes and obesity, and earlier research has suggested the drugs may have anti-inflammatory effects beyond their impact on blood sugar and weight. Bloom described the reasoning behind the project directly: “GLP-1 receptor agonists are widely used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity. Previous research suggests that they may have anti-inflammatory effects and may improve lung-related outcomes. However, asthma and COPD outcomes have not been included as outcomes in GLP-1 drug trials.” That gap is what prompted her team to mine real-world prescribing data instead of waiting for a dedicated respiratory trial. She added that for people with airway disease who already qualify for a GLP-1 drug because of obesity or type 2 diabetes, the results hint that the treatment could carry a respiratory benefit on top of its approved uses. Obesity and metabolic dysfunction are common, and often under-treated, contributors to airway disease, according to Alexander Mathioudakis, chair of the European Respiratory Society‘s Group on Airway Pharmacology and Treatment and a senior lecturer in respiratory medicine at the University of Manchester, who was not involved in the research.

An Abstract, Not Yet a Finished Trial

The results are a conference abstract rather than a published, peer-reviewed study, and the underlying design is observational: it compares outcomes in patients who were already prescribed one drug or another, rather than randomly assigning treatment. That leaves open the possibility that people started on semaglutide differed in other ways from those started on a sulfonylurea, such as being generally healthier or more engaged with their own care, and that those differences, not the drug itself, explain part of the gap. Bloom was direct about the limits of the findings in comments released alongside the research: “The findings from this study are encouraging, but they should not change treatment decisions on their own. People with asthma or COPD should not start GLP-1 receptor agonists specifically for their lung condition outside current prescribing guidance.”

What a Confirming Trial Would Need to Measure

Mathioudakis said the analysis is among the largest real-world studies to examine GLP-1 drugs and airway disease, and one of the first to look for differences between individual medications in the class rather than treating them as interchangeable. He called for future clinical trials of metabolic therapies to build in respiratory measures directly, including asthma attacks, COPD flare-ups, lung function, symptoms and quality of life, so that any benefit for the airways could be confirmed rather than inferred from prescribing records. Until such trials are completed, the semaglutide finding remains a lead for researchers to pursue rather than a basis for prescribing decisions.

What This Means for People Already Taking the Drug

For patients who are already on semaglutide for diabetes or weight management and who separately live with asthma or COPD, the research offers a possible added upside rather than a new instruction to follow. Nothing in the findings suggests semaglutide should replace an inhaler, a biologic, or any other prescribed airway treatment, and Bloom’s own caution against starting the drug purely for lung reasons applies just as strongly to patients who might otherwise ask a doctor to prescribe it off-label. The more immediate value of the analysis, according to the researchers, is scientific rather than clinical: it gives trial designers a reason to add asthma attacks and COPD flare-ups to the outcomes they track the next time a GLP-1 drug is tested, something that has not routinely happened in diabetes and obesity trials to date.

Source documentation: European Respiratory Society meeting and research authority; FDA information on semaglutide; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute asthma reference; U.S. clinical-trial registry for testing interventions; Report of the conference study.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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