2023
Daniel Drucker
Physician-scientist’s research enables treatments for major health challenges, including obesity
2023
Physician-scientist’s research enables treatments for major health challenges, including obesity
“I always viewed myself as a clinician first and scientist second,” says endocrinologist Daniel Drucker. “So it’s tremendously rewarding” to see his research making a difference in people’s lives after decades of fundamental research.
The senior scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health and a professor at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine has won the prestigious 2023 Wolf Prize for medicine. The Wolf Prize is awarded annually to outstanding scientists and artists from around the world for achievements in the interest of humanity and friendly relations among people.
Dr. Drucker was recognized for his research on the physiology and therapeutic potential of glucagon-like peptides (GLP), hormones produced in the gut that now 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, that improve blood sugar control and have been shown to benefit weight loss – drugs that have received much public attention over the past year.
The endocrinologist is also part of a team of scientists awarded the 2023 VinFuture Special Prize for Innovators with Outstanding Achievements in Emerging Fields. The prize, valued at $500,000, is presented by the not-for-profit VinFuture Foundation in recognition of breakthrough scientific and technological innovations.
“Now, if you say the word Ozempic, everybody knows somebody who’s on it or talked about it or lost weight on it, etc.,” he says. And the promise of his work continues to grow.
“More trials are reporting success with GLP-1. A month ago, Novo Nordisk announced that the outcomes trial on people with obesity showed that their GLP-1 drugs reduced heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular death by 20 per cent. That’s never been shown before in any trial on any obesity medicine.”
Such impactful innovations don’t happen overnight. “This story has taken 35 years,” he says of his fundamental research. “So we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that this is a slow process; that it’s hard to predict innovation. The investments in basic science and all forms of science pay dividends that one cannot foresee, but it’s tremendously rewarding to see how this has gone.”
Dr. Drucker doesn’t work for the companies that bring these solutions to market, but he does “consult for companies and advise them on how they might think about developing their drugs and what they should be thinking about going forward.”
At his lab, Dr. Drucker continues looking for answers to key questions involved with GLP’s success, including, “How do these things work? Where do they exert their actions? Are the receptors in the organs as important as the receptors in the brain?”
In 2021, Dr. Drucker won the Canada Gairdner International Award, one of the most prestigious international prizes in the biosciences. He donated the $100,000 Gairdner Prize to establish The Drucker Family Sinai Health Discovery Awards, a program to motivate innovation throughout the hospital and research ecosystem at Sinai Health.
