2024
Daniel Drucker
After success of diabetes and obesity treatments, Daniel Drucker looks to potential of GLP-1 drugs for other illnesses
2024
After success of diabetes and obesity treatments, Daniel Drucker looks to potential of GLP-1 drugs for other illnesses
Daniel Drucker has added to his impressive collection of major international research prizes with this year’s Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research. The senior scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine is once again being recognized for his research on the physiology and therapeutic potential of glucagon-like peptides (GLP) — hormones produced in the gut that form the basis for several highly effective drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, obesity, and intestinal disorders.
These include a class of type 2 diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which improve blood sugar control and have been shown to benefit weight loss. Dr. Drucker’s work has received significant public attention in recent years due to the success of GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss.
He shares the 2024 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research with Jeffrey M. Friedman, molecular biologist (U.S.); Joel F. Habener, endocrinologist (U.S.); Jens Juul Holst, chemist (Denmark); and Svetlana Mojsov, chemist (North Macedonia and U.S.). The five scientists have been developing this research since the 1970s.
As impressive as the success of GLP-1 drugs has been so far, they hold tremendous potential for even greater impact on human health in the years ahead.
“The GLP-1 field is interesting because it seems to be expanding,” says Dr. Drucker. “We started with type 2 diabetes 20 years ago, and then 10 years ago we had the weight loss/obesity chapter. But you know, we’re getting exciting results in the field and in the clinic with heart disease, heart failure, kidney disease, and metabolic liver disease. There are trials on all kinds of psychiatric disorders and ongoing trials with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
It seems to be just expanding tremendously into many different domains, which is fascinating. We’ll just have to see where this goes.”
Dr. Drucker says the success and potential of GLP-1 drugs point to the importance of investing in basic research. “If you invest in strong basic science, you just don’t know what you’re going to get, whether it’s artificial intelligence, or the Internet, or vaccines, or our story of glucagon-like peptides… There are so many success stories that justify fundamental, basic science funding.”
His numerous global recognitions include the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, the Gairdner International Award, the VinFuture Prize for Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Fields, and the Wolf Prize in Medicine. Together with Drs. Habener, Mojsov, and Holst, Dr. Drucker is included in TIME magazine’s list of the most influential people in health in 2024.
