ADA 2025: Insights into Diabetes, Obesity, and Pharmacist's Role in Advancing Care

In an interview with Pharmacy Times®, Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BCPS, BC-ADM, BCACP, CDCES, FADCES, FCCP, remote monitoring program coordinator and endocrinology clinical pharmacy specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, shares insights about the upcoming American Diabetes Association 85th Scientific Sessions. She highlights key research areas, including inhaled insulin studies, the CATALYST trial on hypercortisolism, and new drug combination trials for weight loss. Isaacs also emphasizes the importance of the ADA's new obesity standards of care, which will provide crucial guidance for treating obesity and its relationship to type 2 diabetes. The discussion also focuses on emerging drug indications, such as expanded uses for sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, including potential approvals for liver disease and MASH. Isaacs stresses the critical role of pharmacists in staying informed about these advancements, recommending strategies like attending the conference, accessing virtual options, and sharing new findings through methods like journal clubs to improve patient care.

Pharmacy Times: Can you introduce yourself?

Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, BC-ADM, CDCES: My name is Diana Isaacs. I'm an endocrine pharmacist and director of education and training and diabetes technology at the Cleveland Clinic.

Pharmacy Times: What are some key sessions that will be presented at the upcoming 2025 ADA Scientific Sessions?

Isaacs: I am so excited for the ADA Scientific Sessions. It is my favorite meeting of the entire year. I will be doing a debate about over-the-counter CGM with David Ahn, an endocrinologist out of California. The debate is called CGM for all, or data for all, or a disaster waiting to happen—I am team data for all. I will try to talk about all the benefits of having CGM widely accessible, but I look forward to that debate. Then there are going to be a lot of readouts on new scientific information. Some of the ones I'm particularly excited about are the Inhale 1 study looking at inhaled insulin in the pediatric population. Currently it's only FDA approved for adults, and so seeing this data and how it may respond in kids, I think it'd be very insightful. Also, part 2 of the CATALYST trial is going to be read out. In part 1 of the CATALYST trial, they determined that hypercortisolism is much more prevalent than we ever thought. It was 24% of the patients studied that, and these were people that had, anyone sees, over 7.5% and were on 3 or more diabetes medications. I mean, this is the average person that we see, and 24% of them had high cortisol levels. The second part of this is studying the drug mifepristone in this population to see if that helps to reduce the A1C levels. Top-line results show that it did reduce A1C levels, and so I'm so excited to see that full report out on that information. Then there are other things I'm excited about, like CagriSema, which is cagrilintide and semaglutide, the combination, and that's being studied for weight loss. They are going to have the readout there, and it's always so exciting being in the rooms during these big readouts. Often, they're simultaneously published at the same time. It is just so exciting.

Pharmacy Times: How do you anticipate the research from ADA 2025 will influence future updates to the ADA Standards of Care?

Isaacs: Another thing that I'm also excited about is, in addition to the usual ADA standards of care, which are related to diabetes, there are now obesity standards of care that ADA is working on. In fact, they already published their first 2 chapters on this. I think we're going to be hearing a lot about that, and this is going to be instrumental in how we approach the treatment of obesity, which is a tremendous risk factor for type 2 diabetes, and many people living with type 2 diabetes also live with obesity. I think those standards are going to be really important, and it's very important for pharmacists to know them in terms of implementation. The more we learn, we're seeing expanded uses for drugs like SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 agonists; it's very important for the pharmacist to understand that we may be seeing new indications coming. For example, GLP-1s being approved for liver disease and MASH. There are going to be a lot of key takeaways that will be important for the pharmacist to know.

Pharmacy Times: What role do you see pharmacists playing in the discussions and advancements presented at the event?

Isaacs: It's great if pharmacists can be there, but even if not, there's a virtual option as well. Even if not that, there's still the possibility to read all the summaries and really grasp at the new publications that are coming out. Then determining how they can share it with their respective practices—doing journal clubs with students is a great way to share these new findings. Then just staying up to date on new indications that come out to make sure that we are offering that to our patients, that we can provide them really the highest level of care, and ultimately lead to the best possible outcomes for people with diabetes, obesity, and other cardiometabolic conditions.