(NYTs) – The studies were a significant setback for the optimistic view that semaglutide and other GLP-1 drugs could help prevent a number of brain diseases.

Hopes were high. In retrospect, perhaps too high.

On Monday, Novo Nordisk announced that two large studies failed to find any effect of the drug semaglutide on cognition and functioning in people with mild cognitive impairment — an early stage of Alzheimer’s — or with dementia. The participants were randomly assigned to take a pill of semaglutide, the compound at the heart of the weight-loss injections Ozempic and Wegovy, or a placebo for two years. (Read More)