Dr. Daniel Drucker, a doctor and scientist at the University of Toronto, has won the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. He received the award on Saturday for helping discover the GLP-1 hormone. This hormone plays a key role in the development of popular medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. The Canadian Press
A Canadian doctor has earned one of the world’s biggest science awards for discovering a hormone that’s now used in some of the most popular drugs for treating diabetes and obesity. These medications — Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro — have helped millions of people across the globe.
Dr. Daniel Drucker, a hormone expert and researcher at a major Canadian university and health institute, shares the $3 million prize with four other scientists from the U.S. and Denmark. They all helped develop drugs based on the hormone called GLP-1. One of the winners, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, turned their lab findings into actual medicine.
The award, often called the “Oscars of Science,” was given out in Los Angeles. It celebrates top work in science, including physics, math, and life sciences. Another Canadian, Maaike van Kooten, also won a smaller award for helping develop a way to view planets beyond our solar system.
In an interview before the awards, Dr. Drucker said winning meant a lot because it’s chosen by fellow scientists. He said, “We have students and trainees and awards like this tell them that the world is watching.” He added that this gives young people hope and motivation.
Drucker began studying hormones in the 1980s while working in a U.S. lab. He said he was randomly assigned to study the glucagon gene. At one point, his supervisor even took his lab notes to file a patent because the results were so promising. Drucker moved back to Canada in 1987 and made more discoveries in his lab in Toronto, especially in 1996 when they found GLP-1 can help control appetite.
Big drug companies became interested early on, but they struggled with side effects like nausea. It took years of testing to figure out how to safely give the hormone in small doses and make it last longer in the body. Eventually, they succeeded — leading to the medicines we know today.
Dr. Drucker now studies other ways GLP-1 can help. He said it may protect people from heart disease, stroke, kidney issues, and even help those with sleep apnea, arthritis, and liver disease. There are also ongoing studies to see if it helps with brain conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
He believes the hormone’s biggest strength might be its ability to reduce inflammation in the body. This could explain why people benefit even if they don’t lose a lot of weight or lower their blood sugar.
Dr. Drucker also spoke about how views on obesity have changed. In the past, people blamed those with obesity for not trying hard enough. But now we know that many people try everything and still struggle. With GLP-1 drugs, those people finally have a way to lose weight and stay healthy.
However, he also warned about overuse. He worries about people using the drugs just to look better for events, while others who really need them can’t get access. He also raised concerns about the high cost and lack of insurance coverage. Finally, he pointed out that more research is still needed to understand long-term safety, especially for people without diabetes or obesity.
