When it comes to diabetes drugs, there’s just something about Toronto researchers. In 1984, 63 years after Banting and Best isolated insulin, Daniel Drucker, another U of T alumnus, co-discovered glucagon-like peptide-1, a.k.a. GLP-1, a gut hormone that lowers blood sugar and suppresses appetite. Drucker’s eureka moment was exciting in endocrinology circles. But it wasn’t until decades later, when a GLP-1-mimicking drug called semaglutide proved effective for weight loss, that their work became the foundation for Ozempic, the shot taken ’round the world.
The ripples of the “Ozempic effect” are now unfathomably huge: an expanding suite of GLP-1 drugs (Wegovy, Mounjaro and Rybelsus), a soon-to-be $100-billion industry, so many op-eds about our screwed-up body politics, witch hunts around celebrity users and, on a more serious note, widespread shortages that are expected to last through 2024. Drucker is today a senior scientist at Toronto’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and a Canadian Medical Hall of Famer. I spoke with him recently for Maclean’s about his seminal research, Ozempic mania and what he’s working on now.
—Katie Underwood, Maclean’s managing editor
