Nov 11 (Reuters) - U.S. military veterans face racial

and ethnic inequities in access to Novo Nordisk's

highly in-demand drugs for diabetes and weight loss, according

to a review of patient data published on Monday, the U.S.

Veterans Day holiday.

In the U.S. Veterans Affairs Medical System, Black patients

and those of Asian or Native American ancestry were less likely

to receive semaglutide than white patients for diabetes or

weight loss, study leader Dr. Rebecca Tisdale of the VA Palo

Alto Health Care System in Menlo Park, California, said.

Semaglutide is sold by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic for treatment

of type 2 diabetes and as Wegovy for weight management. It

belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists.

Researchers reviewed data on 1.9 million patients who are

overweight or considered obese, including nearly 809,000 with

diabetes, at U.S. VA facilities, where access to insurance is

not a barrier to care.

The odds of receiving a semaglutide prescription were 26%

lower for Black patients with diabetes and 9% lower for Black

patients without diabetes than for white patients in those two

groups, they found.

There were no significant differences between Hispanic and

white veterans. But for veterans identified as American

Indian/Alaskan Native and Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific

Islander, those with diabetes had 17% lower odds of receiving a

semaglutide prescription compared to white patients.

"Across all minority race groups, the most significant

undertreatment was among those with diabetes," the researchers

said in a report of the study published in Circulation

Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

"This concerning pattern may reflect disparities within

disparities," they said, noting that some racial and ethnic

groups are less likely to receive these novel therapies in

general, and "the most severe undertreatment is among those with

more than one indication and thus most to gain."

"The VA's policies around allocating GLP-1 receptor agonists

like semaglutide are still very much evolving as the supply of

these drugs from the manufacturer and demand from patients and

doctors continues to change," said Tisdale, who will present the

findings at the upcoming American Heart Association scientific

meeting in Chicago.

"Our hope is that studies like ours ensure that equity is

explicitly considered as these regulations are formed, she

said."