Redacción Farmacosalud.com
According to Dr. Ignacio Bernabéu, president of the Spanish Society of Endocrinology and Nutrition (SEEN), there are many new drugs and many others “that will be released shortly” to treat dyslipidemia, in such a way that, probably, with the application of the most innovative medications to treat diabetes, obesity and lipids “we will achieve that, within 10 or 15 years, cardiovascular events will decrease in large numbers” and, with this, a reduction the mortality associated with this type of episode.
In fact, Bernabéu has taken advantage of the celebration in Granada of the 66th SEEN Congress to remember that metabolic pathology brings together several interrelated conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. That is to say, they would not be “single” conditions, but rather a conglomerate in which lipid anomalies stand out due to their significance, he argues. In the opinion of Dr. Bernabéu, “there is a direct relationship between increased cholesterol, increased lipids in the blood and cardiovascular disease, even though sometimes” there are pseudoscientists who do not agree with such postulates.
Logo of the SEEN meeting
Fuente: congresoseen2025.com
Not all overweight people can access new slimming drugs
The congress meeting also discussed progress against severe excess weight and diabetes, specifically, treatments that not only help achieve weight loss and regulate glucose levels, but also reduce cardiovascular risk while providing benefits for kidney health. They are the so-called incretin medications, of which there are two marketed in Spain, such as semaglutide and tirzepatide. Dr. Bernabéu believes that it is a therapeutic family that still has “a lot to contribute,” especially because “new variants and new combinations of incretin drugs” are already coming.
As for those overweight people who, in view of the success of the new medications for obesity, request their prescription even though they are not therapies covered by public health, the expert admits from the outset that they are drugs that “can achieve average weight loss of around 20%”, a result that has never been achieved before with a pharmacological treatment, although it has been achieved with surgical procedures (in the latter case, with even greater weight losses). Now, – he clarifies next -, the “strict indication” of these medications focuses, on the one hand, on obese patients – that is, the indication adjusts to criteria defined by indices and percentages of mass and body fat -, and on the other hand, contemplates their use in individuals “who are overweight but with associated complications such as diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, etc.”
Thus, in the event that a ‘healthy’ person who is overweight (but not obese) demands to receive these new drugs, they should know that they are treatments that are not aimed at their profile, since, for such subjects, what is indicated is the practice of diet and modification of lifestyle habits. Dietary guidelines and the promotion of physical activity are also aimed at people with obesity, since, for these patients, the prescribed medication only helps to reduce the sensation of appetite, hence the pharmacological strategy must be accompanied by changes in lifestyle, insists the president of SEEN.
AI and the endocrinological horizon
On the other hand, in the video below, Bernabéu reflects on the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to the specialty of Endocrinology:
Finally, Dr. Bernabéu gives a “very positive assessment” of the Congress, especially because, apart from the obvious interest of the purely scientific sessions, there is the feeling that the informative activities that took place in a tent outside the congress venue and that were aimed at the general public and patient associations were a complete success.
