Obesity-drug pioneers and 13,508 physicists win US$3-million Breakthrough Prizes
Five scientists who contributed to the development of the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy have picked up one of this year’s US$3-million Breakthrough prizes — the most lucrative awards in science.
Originally developed to treat diabetes, these drugs work by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) that controls blood sugar levels and helps to curb appetite.
This life-sciences prize is shared between the four researchers who discovered and characterized GLP-1 – endocrinologist Daniel Drucker at the University of Toronto, Canada; physician-researchers Joel Habener at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts and Jens Juul Holst at the University of Copenhagen; and chemist Svetlana Mojsov at The Rockefeller University in New York City — along with Lotte Bjerre Knudsen of pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in Bagsværd, Denmark, who spearheaded the development of drugs based on these discoveries.
The award is one of six Breakthrough prizes to be awarded this year in life sciences, physics and mathematics.
