(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."