In mid-September, Novo Nordisk inked a pair of deals worth a total of more than $1.1 billion in research and development (R&D) costs, payments, milestone fees, and royalties, with the explicit aim of bolstering its cardiometabolic disease therapy pipeline via as-yet-unexplored therapeutic modalities.

The results suggest Ozempic could potentially become a new alternative treatment for opioid use disorder, which could help address the ongoing opioid epidemic.