Smoking accounts for almost eight million deaths per year worldwide, making it the leading risk factor for premature death.

Not every smoker responds to medications to help people quit smoking, however, so providers are always looking for more treatment options to offer their patients.

That's why when patients being treated with the popular glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) medications for type 2 diabetes and weight loss reported less of a desire to smoke while on the drugs, researchers took note.

A team from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health and the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine found that the diabetes and weight-loss drug semaglutide, the generic form of Ozempic, reduced smoking-related health care use, decreasing the number of provider visits that included a diagnosis of tobacco use disorder and the need for prescriptions for smoking cessation medication. People taking it also reported a diminished need for smoking cessation counseling.

Using a nationwide database of electronic health records of more than 220,000 people with type 2 diabetes who were also smokers, the researchers developed a simulation that compared the effect of semaglutide for smoking cessation to that of seven other diabetes medications, including other GLP-1RAs. Everyone in the study had recently been prescribed diabetes medications for the first time, including almost 6,000 who had been prescribed semaglutide.

Patients being treated with GLP-1 medications for type 2 diabetes and obesity reported a decreased desire to smoke.

Participants were divided into three subpopulations: those with type 2 diabetes who were smokers; those with type 2 diabetes who smoked and had a diagnosis of obesity; and those who had type 2 diabetes who smoked and were not obese.

Semaglutide had a similar effect on smoking-related health care in subpopulations with and without obesity. The results were seen primarily within 30 days of starting the drug.

The findings showing an association between semaglutide and smoking cessation are preliminary, Rong Xu, co-corresponding author on the study, told TheDoctor. They should not be used to justify the off-label use of semaglutide. “Randomized clinical trials are necessary for FDA approval so providers can prescribe semaglutide for smoking cessation,” said Xu, a professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western.

Ultimately, the researchers hope to take the research a step further and prove a causal relationship.

The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.