Olio Labs has officially published results a groundbreaking study, which was designed to study fundamental sex-based differences in how weight loss medications interact with human biology, revealing why women experience more severe side effects from GLP-1 drugs such as OzempicⓇ and Zepbound®.
To understand the significance of such a study, we must take into account how, at present, the world has a staggering two billion people who are either overweight or outright obese, a number which will likely propel the obesity treatment market towards $200 billion mark by 2031.
Anyway, coming back to the published report, it goes on to deliver at your disposal unprecedented insights regarding GLP-1 drug effectiveness across sexes, addressing a critical research gap in a market where women make up 70% of patients.
Talk about the same on a slightly deeper level, we begin from the topic of breakthrough potential, a topic where the research suggests personalized dosing, inclusive of adjusting medication based on menstrual cycle phases, can very well reduce side effects and discontinuation rates among women.
Next up; we must dig into the given drugs’ efficiency-to-tolerability ratio. You see, by the body of work we have with us right now, women tend to show far greater weight loss than men, but having said so, they also experience 2.5 times higher rates of nausea and vomiting.
“This isn’t just about improving GLP-1 drugs—it’s about rethinking how we design future therapies for real-world patients from the start,” said David Tingley, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Olio Labs. “By discovering these fundamental sex-based differences in drug response, our research opens the door to more personalized treatment approaches that could significantly improve outcomes for millions of patients.”
Almost like an extension of that, we have biological mechanisms coming into play. This translates to how, during Olio’s study, female mice displayed nearly double the GLP-1 receptor expression in brain regions linked to nausea, explaining their heightened side effects. Assuming this receptor expression pattern is consistent across species it could explain why women experience higher rates of nausea and vomiting.
Another detail worth a mention here is rooted in the prospect of hormone-drug interaction, which shows that higher estrogen levels correlate with more severe side effects, highlighting the role of hormone levels in drug response.
The study in question even covers cross-species validation. It replicated findings in rats and mice before eventually confirming that these sex-based differences are evolutionarily conserved.
“Olio is redefining the future of medicine by using technology to reinvent the drug discover process with physiology at the center — effectively addressing the needs of patient populations that have long been overlooked and bridging the gender divide in pharma,” said Kristina Simmons, founder and managing partner of Overwater Ventures. “Obesity is one of the largest problems in America right now, and Olio’s research will help millions of women have a better solution without the side effects.”
Among other things, we ought to mention how Olio leveraged a revolutionary therapeutic design platform, built on AI-powered Combination Design Engine (CoDE), to reach upon these findings. The stated CoDE platform, in essence, packs together human medical record and biological data, in-vivo phenomic screening, in-depth neural and endocrine circuit maps, and AI-powered integration of biological expertise.
All in all, the technology banks upon an expansive 120 million patient electronic medical record dataset.
The development in question also delivers a rather interesting follow-up to Olio Labs recently raising $4.5 million in funding, led by Boom Capital and Overwater Ventures who were joined by Pioneer Fund, SciFounders, Scrum Ventures, Y Combinator (S23), and ZAKA.