Pittsburgh Researchers Plan a 1,200-Person Trial of Semaglutide for Alcohol and Opioid Addiction

A Pittsburgh-based addiction research group and Allegheny County officials said they are preparing to launch a large randomized clinical trial to test whether semaglutide, the drug sold as Ozempic and Wegovy, can help reduce alcohol and opioid use when added to standard treatment.

The study, announced by the Center for Addiction Science, Policy and Research, or CASPR, and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, is expected to begin in early 2027. It will enroll as many as 1,200 adults with alcohol use disorder, opioid use disorder, or both. Participants will be followed for 52 weeks.

Under the trial design, half of the participants will be randomly assigned to receive weekly semaglutide in addition to existing addiction care. The other half will continue with standard care without the added drug. Researchers said the study will examine whether the medication can reduce substance use and cravings while also improving broader measures such as employment, housing stability, health outcomes, and contact with the criminal justice system.

Semaglutide is approved in the United States for type 2 diabetes and weight management, not for addiction treatment. But researchers said early evidence has raised interest in whether drugs in the GLP-1 receptor agonist class may also affect cravings and heavy substance use. CASPR and county officials said the new study is meant to test that question at a much larger scale and in a population considered at elevated risk of involvement with the justice system.

The trial is backed by a $13.3 million grant from Arnold Ventures to CASPR. UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital’s Addiction Medicine Services will serve as the lead clinical site, working with other addiction treatment partners in Allegheny County. The research team also includes investigators from MIT, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California San Diego, and county government.

According to the organizers, the study is designed to answer both a medical question and a policy question. In addition to tracking alcohol and opioid use, the researchers plan to use Allegheny County’s linked administrative data systems to measure outcomes across several areas, including health care use and costs, housing instability, mental health, weight, impulsivity, self-control, and rearrest, reconviction, or reincarceration. The aim is to determine not only whether the drug helps individual patients, but also whether any benefit is large enough to justify longer-term public investment.

County officials said recruitment will focus on people with substance use disorders who are also at risk of criminal justice-system involvement. Participants must be clinically appropriate candidates for GLP-1 medications. Those who enroll will remain eligible for behavioral health and other support services while in the study.

Nicholas Reville, CASPR’s executive director and co-founder, said the group and county officials structured the project so that, if the results are positive, other cities could more easily adopt the approach because it relies on a medication delivered through existing care rather than on a new and more complex service model. Allegheny County human services director Alex Jutca said the county views the study as part of a broader effort to use evidence to address addiction, recovery, and public safety.

Researchers involved in the project said the trial builds on earlier phase 2 studies that have suggested GLP-1 drugs may reduce heavy drinking and opioid cravings. CASPR also pointed to a smaller program in Rhode Island involving women in post-incarceration sober housing, where semaglutide has been offered as part of addiction treatment. Those earlier efforts have drawn attention, but the Pittsburgh-area study is intended to provide more rigorous evidence through random assignment and a far larger sample.

The announcement comes as interest in GLP-1 drugs continues to expand well beyond diabetes and obesity care. For the beverage sector, the study could eventually matter if it adds credible evidence that these medicines reduce heavy drinking or change alcohol consumption patterns. That could shape future thinking in public health and, over time, affect demand trends for beer, wine, spirits, and other alcoholic drinks. For now, however, the trial has not started and there are no results.

Antoine Douaihy, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and senior academic director of Addiction Medicine Services at Western Psychiatric Hospital, said the project will examine both effectiveness and safety while looking at outcomes tied to alcohol and opioid use disorders, including work, housing, health, and recidivism. Organizers said that broader approach reflects the reality that substance use disorders often intersect with poverty, unstable housing, mental illness, and repeated justice-system contact.

CASPR said it does not accept direct or indirect funding from pharmaceutical companies. The organization said its work focuses on medication development and policy in addiction care, and that the new trial grew out of discussions with Allegheny County about addiction, recidivism, and the county’s ability to connect health and justice data across agencies.

The study’s backers said they are also working with community leaders and treatment partners on recruitment and participant support, with an emphasis on respectful treatment and wider inclusion in medical research. If enrollment begins on schedule in early 2027, the trial will become one of the largest efforts yet to test whether a GLP-1 drug can play a role in treating alcohol and opioid use disorders in real-world addiction care.