GLP-1 drugs are transforming diabetes, obesity and more. Could a Nobel be next?
If the discoveries that gave us Ozempic and Mounjaro find their way to the Nobel spotlight, who would win? Here’s the story of which scientists did what.
Next week, 50 medical experts from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm will meet to award the 2023 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. The vote takes place on Oct. 2, but betting-minded scientists are already beginning to make their picks for who might take home the gold.
Seasoned Nobel prognosticators will point out that the medicine prize often cycles between super-basic molecular biology and inventions that actually cure people. Last year’s award for paleogenomics falls more toward the former, suggesting an advance with a more clinical focus could well be in the Nobel Assembly’s sights this year. There are many compelling candidates, including the mRNA technology that helped halt the Covid-19 pandemic. But the explosive impact of metabolism-correcting, weight-moderating drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro also has some prize forecasters wondering if perhaps the discoveries that have led up to these treatments might find their way to the Nobel spotlight.
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