The GLP-1 story keeps getting bigger. This week at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Barcelona, researchers from Imperial College London presented real-world data linking semaglutide to nearly 40% fewer asthma attacks in people who also have the condition.
The finding comes from a broad look at UK electronic health records, and it backs up a hunch that has been floating around metabolic research for a while: these drugs do more than control blood sugar and body weight. For people in the research community who track GLP-1s closely, it is another tile in a growing mosaic of effects that stretch well beyond metabolism.
The headline finding
Professor Chloe Bloom, Clinical Associate Professor in Respiratory Epidemiology at Imperial College London’s National Heart and Lung Institute, presented the work with Dr Bohee Lee. The team wanted to answer a simple question: do people with asthma or COPD who start GLP-1 receptor agonists have fewer acute respiratory attacks than people on other diabetes medications?
Their answer, based on four parallel real-world studies each covering between 20,000 and 22,000 people, was yes. Among the GLP-1 drugs examined, semaglutide stood out most clearly:
- Nearly 40% fewer asthma attacks in people with asthma
- 20% fewer COPD flare-ups in people with the disease
Bloom was careful to frame the numbers: the effect was strongest with semaglutide, especially in people with asthma, where the reduction in attacks approached 40%. The COPD reduction was more modest but still consistent across the analyses.
How the study worked
This was not a randomised controlled trial. It was a real-world analysis using electronic medical records from the UK, which is exactly the kind of design that lets researchers see what happens when thousands of people actually take these drugs in routine care rather than in a tightly controlled study environment.
The team ran four parallel studies. In each one, between 20,000 and 22,000 people who started treatment with either a GLP-1 medication or a different class of diabetes drug (a sulfonylurea) were compared. Both groups had airway disease. The comparison against sulfonylureas matters because people taking that older drug class have similar levels of underlying illness, which makes it a fairer baseline than comparing GLP-1 users to the general population who may be healthier overall.
Real-world studies have limitations, and the researchers acknowledged them. Electronic health records carry coding quirks, prescribing patterns are not randomised, and people who end up on one drug versus another are rarely identical. But what these designs lack in experimental control they make up for in scale and generalisability. When four separate cohorts point in the same direction, the signal gets harder to dismiss.
Why would a weight loss drug affect the lungs?
This is the part that has researchers genuinely curious. The obvious explanation is that weight loss itself improves lung function, since carrying less abdominal mass reduces the mechanical load on the diaphragm and chest wall. Obesity is a known driver of asthma severity and COPD progression, so some of the benefit probably flows through metabolic improvement.
But GLP-1 receptor agonists also have documented anti-inflammatory effects that appear partly independent of weight change. The gut-brain-lung axis is a real thing, and GLP-1 receptors show up in tissues beyond the pancreas, including parts of the immune system. Inflammation is central to both asthma and COPD, so a drug that dampens systemic inflammation could plausibly translate into fewer attacks even before the weight effect fully kicks in.
Bloom said it plainly: previous research suggests GLP-1 receptor agonists may have anti-inflammatory effects and may improve lung-related outcomes, but asthma and COPD have not been included as outcomes in GLP-1 drug trials. That gap is exactly what this analysis starts to fill. Notably, the strongest signal appeared with semaglutide, which may reflect its potency, its dose, or the characteristics of the people prescribed it.
What the Research Says
- Real-world UK data presented at the ERS Congress found semaglutide use associated with nearly 40% fewer asthma attacks and 20% fewer COPD flare-ups compared with people on sulfonylurea diabetes drugs.
- The effect was strongest with semaglutide and in people with asthma, per the study team.
- Prior research suggests GLP-1s have anti-inflammatory properties and may improve lung-related outcomes, but asthma and COPD have not been tracked as outcomes in GLP-1 trials to date.
- This was an observational analysis, not a randomised trial. It cannot prove semaglutide prevents asthma attacks, and the authors did not claim it does.
What this means for people already on GLP-1s
For people in the research community currently studying semaglutide or using it in research settings, the practical takeaway is modest but real. The study does not suggest GLP-1s should be prescribed for asthma. Bloom said the results are not enough to recommend these medications specifically as treatments for asthma or COPD, and that framing is correct.
What it does suggest is that people who already qualify for a GLP-1 receptor agonist because of obesity or type 2 diabetes may get a respiratory benefit in addition to the metabolic one. If you have asthma and you are researching semaglutide for other reasons, this is contextual information worth knowing, not a new indication.
The lung angle also feeds into the broader picture of GLP-1s as multi-system drugs. This year alone we have seen cardiovascular outcome data, kidney outcomes, sleep apnoea data, alcohol use disorder research and now respiratory signals. The receptor biology is turning out to be far more distributed than the early diabetes framing suggested.
The caveats
Three caveats are worth keeping in view before anyone gets carried away.
First, this is conference data. The full methodology and results have not yet been through peer review and journal publication in their final form. Conference abstracts are preliminary, and numbers can shift between presentation and print.
Second, the effect sizes come from observational comparisons. People prescribed semaglutide in the UK are not the same as people prescribed sulfonylureas in ways that may not be fully adjusted for. Residual confounding - the possibility that some unmeasured difference drives the result - is a real risk in every real-world study.
Third, the mechanism is unresolved. If the benefit flows mainly through weight loss, then any effective weight intervention might produce it. If it flows through anti-inflammatory pathways, that opens a different and more interesting research door. Until mechanistic studies and randomised respiratory outcome trials are done, the “why” stays open.
Where the research goes next
The obvious next step is a randomised controlled trial with respiratory endpoints. Bloom and colleagues essentially made that case themselves: if GLP-1s show this signal in real-world data, the logical move is to test them properly in people with asthma and COPD. Given the size of the GLP-1 evidence machinery currently running, a respiratory outcomes trial is plausible within the next few years.
In the meantime, for the Australian research community, the practical relevance is simple. Semaglutide is among the most widely discussed compounds in the GLP-1 space locally, and understanding the full range of its reported effects - including respiratory ones - is part of following the science honestly. As always, keep the “research interest” framing front and centre: none of this is medical advice, and no one should be starting semaglutide for asthma on the strength of a conference presentation.
If you want to keep up with developments like this as they land, the Grey Highway community discusses new papers and trial data in the Telegram group. For a deeper look at the compound itself, see our semaglutide research page.
Sources
Source: ScienceDaily - Ozempic and Wegovy linked to nearly 40% fewer asthma attacks
Source: Research presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress, Barcelona, September 2026. Led by Prof Chloe Bloom, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London.
Disclaimer: This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, therapeutic recommendations, or endorsements of any compound. Grey Highway is a research-education community. We do not sell, supply, or promote the use of research compounds. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding health decisions. For Australian regulatory information, visit the TGA website.