Why carry out this study?

Although guidelines and recommendations on the management of type 2 diabetes prioritize the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists, this class of drugs is still used in a minority of patients who could benefit from them

Implementation of an oral therapy in place of an injectable one may help overcome such inertia

We undertook a survey among diabetes care specialists in Italy to describe the characteristics and trajectories of patients with type 2 diabetes candidate for initiating oral semaglutide

What was learned from the study?

We analyzed 4449 patients initiating oral semaglutide who had a relatively short diabetes duration; a minority had a history of cardiovascular disease

Initiation of oral semaglutide allowed to de-prescribe sulfonylureas, pioglitazone, DPP-4 inhibitors, and insulin

Projected glycemic effectiveness analysis showed that oral semaglutide could potentially lead HbA1c to target in the majority of patients