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Vice President, Protein and Peptide Chemistry at Novo Nordisk A/S
The Discovery of Semaglutide – A Journey from Ala Scan to Structural Design of GLP-1 Analogues
Since the early clinical findings of using glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) to regulate blood glucose levels in the late 80´s, there has been an increasing interest to discover and develop GLP-1 receptor agonists for treatment of type 2 diabetes. The increased non-clinical and clinical understanding of the mechanism of action of GLP-1 and the parallel technical development have now brought the scientific community to a very high level of understanding with structural insight of the interaction of peptides and small molecules with GPCR class B receptors. The discovery of semaglutide is a fantastic example on how technology and biologic understanding have developed in parallel ending with a superior peptide for treatment of diabetes.