Decades ago, Toronto researcher Daniel Drucker co-discovered a hormone that paved the way for today's most-talked-about drug. Does he get the hype? Yes and no.
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, or GLP-1, a gut hormone that lowers blood sugar and suppresses appetite. Drucker and Co.’s eureka moment was exciting-ish in endocrinology circles.
You and some of your international colleagues discovered the diabetes-fighting potential of insulin’s cousin, GLP-1, which eventually led to the creation of Ozempic. Did you have any inkling back then of the magnitude of what you’d stumbled on?was excited about them. I was a 28-year-old trainee making $20,000-something a year. I had a child—and a lot more black hair than I do now—but not a lot of job security. I thought,Maybe I can publish some papers. Maybe I’ll get a job.
No. In science, you have a one in 10,000 chance of your research going from lab to drug. I’ve been involved with the GLP-1 discovery, and also drugs like Januvia and Gattex . It’s an unbelievable privilege to be associated with science that treats human disease, and I’ve won the lottery over and over again. Bitter is the last word that would cross my mind.
A future with less chronic disease? There’s a rare bit of good news for the Canadian health-care system! Ozempic’s certainly provided an interesting Rorschach test for our cultural neuroses around weight. There’s hope that the rise of GLP-1 drugs might help pry us away from the mindset that obesity is a moral failing, rather than a complex biological process. Have you had those chats with your peers?
You’ve provided guidance to Novo Nordisk on GLP-1 drug development. What recommendations did you give them?
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