Pharmacist-led management of GLP-1 and GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonists in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Mar 23, 2026American journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists

Pharmacist-led management of diabetes medicines that target blood sugar hormones

AI simplified

GLP-1 Therapies on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

Pharmacist-managed care resulted in a 19.9% reduction in HbA1c, compared to a 10.2% reduction in usual care.

Patients managed by pharmacists experienced a statistically significant greater reduction in HbA1c levels compared to those receiving usual care.
The average reduction in HbA1c for the pharmacist-managed group was 19.9% with a standard deviation of 13%.
In contrast, the usual care group had an average reduction of 10.2% with a standard deviation of 20.9%.
Pharmacist-led management was associated with greater improvements in the de-escalation of insulin use.
Patients in the pharmacist-managed group also had a higher average number of dose titrations for GLP-1 and GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonists.

AI simplified

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of pharmacist-led management of GLP-1 and GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonists in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), as compared to usual care by a physician.

METHODS: This was a retrospective study conducted at an outpatient clinic. Adult patients with T2DM who received an initial prescription for dulaglutide, liraglutide, oral or injectable semaglutide, or tirzepatide during the study period of January 1, 2019, to March 31, 2024, were included. Patients were stratified into 2 groups based on the care they received: management by a clinical pharmacist (pharmacist-managed care) or by a resident physician (usual care). Data was collected from the initiation of the GLP-1 receptor agonist (RA) or GIP/GLP-1 RA to 6 months after initial or treatment discontinuation. The primary outcome was the net change in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) from baseline to the end of the study period.

RESULTS: This study included 128 patients: 24 pharmacist-managed and 104 usual care patients. The pharmacist-managed group had a mean 19.9% (SD, 13%) reduction in HbA1c from baseline, compared to a 10.2% (SD, 20.9%) reduction in the usual care group (P = 0.03). The pharmacist-managed group also saw greater improvements in de-escalation of insulin and average number of GLP-1 RA and GIP/GLP-1 RA dose titrations.

CONCLUSION: Pharmacist-led management of GLP-1 RA or GIP/GLP-1 RA therapy resulted in a greater improvement in HbA1c when compared to usual care.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (PDF) ↗View full text ↗

Featured in

GLP-1 TherapiesIssue #30

Tirzepatide beats semaglutide for heart protection in 70,672 non-diabetic adults with obesity

↗

Pharmacist-led management of GLP-1 and GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonists in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Full Text

Featured in

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the glp-1 therapies brief