Researchers say semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, could be biggest medical breakthrough since statins

Researchers say semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, could be biggest medical breakthrough since statins

A weight loss injection could reduce the risk of heart attacks and benefit the cardiovascular health of millions of adults across the UK, in what could be the largest medical breakthrough since statins, according to a study.

It found that participants taking the medication semaglutide, the active ingredient in brands including Wegovy and Ozempic, had a 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or death due to cardiovascular disease.

The study, presented at the European Congress of Obesity (ECO) and led by researchers at University College London, also found that semaglutide brought about cardiovascular benefits for its participants, regardless of their starting weight or the amount of weight that they had lost. It suggests that those with mild obesity or who have lost only a small amount of weight could have an improved cardiovascular outcome.

  • Gigan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    6 months ago

    Is this because people taking it lost weight or would there be a benefit for everyone, even people already at healthy weight?

    • UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.devEnglish
      8·
      6 months ago

      In a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, event-driven superiority trial, we enrolled patients 45 years of age or older who had preexisting cardiovascular disease and a body-mass index (the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) of 27 or greater but no history of diabetes.

      Results

      A total of 17,604 patients were enrolled; 8803 were assigned to receive semaglutide and 8801 to receive placebo. The mean (±SD) duration of exposure to semaglutide or placebo was 34.2±13.7 months, and the mean duration of follow-up was 39.8±9.4 months. A primary cardiovascular end-point event occurred in 569 of the 8803 patients (6.5%) in the semaglutide group and in 701 of the 8801 patients (8.0%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.72 to 0.90; P<0.001). Adverse events leading to permanent discontinuation of the trial product occurred in 1461 patients (16.6%) in the semaglutide group and 718 patients (8.2%) in the placebo group (P<0.001).

      Conclusions

      In patients with preexisting cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity but without diabetes, weekly subcutaneous semaglutide at a dose of 2.4 mg was superior to placebo in reducing the incidence of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke at a mean follow-up of 39.8 months.

      (Funded by Novo Nordisk; SELECT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03574597.)

      The paper.

      • Rolando@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        6 months ago

        I don’t know much about medical research, but it seems like they’re not really testing whether the benefit comes from the weight loss or from some other mechanism. i.e. if the subjects could lose weight through some other means, would they still gain the benefit?

      • Gigan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        Ah thanks, so it was only tested on overweight people with existing heart issues.