Pivotal new research suggests that the weight loss drug WeGoBe reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular disease by 20 percent in overweight or obese heart patients, suggesting that these patients’ This is a significant effect that has the potential to change standard treatment.
“We have just identified new best practices,” said Dr. Clyde Yancey, chief of cardiology at Northwestern Medical School. He was not involved in this study. However, this study also shows what effects this drug has on the heart, whether through weight loss itself or other mechanisms, and whether this drug is comparable in a real-world setting to a more diverse group of patients than the target population. It also raises questions about whether it can be effective. trial.
Still, the study results, presented in a standing-room-only session at the American Heart Association’s conference in Philadelphia on Saturday, suggest that a much-needed new class of obesity and diabetes patients, including Ozempic and newly approved drugs, will This will be a turning point for therapeutic drugs. Zep bound. Pharmaceutical companies see potential for treatments far beyond obesity. If the drug proves that it can not only treat diabetes and help patients lose weight, but also lower the risk of other serious diseases associated with obesity, demand will increase even further and insurers will be able to make it more widely available. There may be pressure to apply for insurance.
The study was “one of the most anticipated trials of the past decade,” said Dr. Yuan Lu, assistant professor of cardiology at Yale School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study. Other than statins, no other drug has so dramatically reduced cardiovascular risk in heart disease patients, she said. “The intake of this drug will skyrocket in the coming years,” she says.
Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Wigovy and Ozempic and funded the study, has already filed paperwork with the Food and Drug Administration and European Union regulators to change the labeling of Wigovy to include that it can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. said that it has been updated. specific patient. Dr. Martin Lange, the company’s executive vice president of development, said he was “very confident” that the FDA would approve the new indication.
The study is the longest and largest trial of Ozempic and Wigoby’s compound, semaglutide, to date. This is also the largest clinical trial Nordisk has ever conducted. More than 17,000 adults aged 45 and older were followed for up to five years. The majority were white and more than two-thirds were male. Most participants in the trial were already taking statins, which are widely recommended for people at risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke. Diabetic patients were excluded from this study. Ozempic is already approved to reduce the risk of heart attack, death, and stroke in adults with type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Among participants who received weekly placebo injections, 8% had a heart attack, stroke, or died from a cardiovascular event, compared with 6.5% of participants who took Wegovy, a weekly injection.
These results show that Wegovy may prevent some of the most serious cardiovascular problems in high-risk people. “This is a huge victory for the field,” said Dr. Ildiko Ringvay, an endocrinologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center and author of the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The weight that patients lose when taking Wegovy explains some of these differences,” said Dr. Michael Linkoff, vice chair of research in cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and lead author of the study. There is a possibility.” But he and other researchers believe that alone doesn’t explain all the cardiovascular benefits. Participants who took Wegovy showed signs of lower blood pressure, better blood sugar control, and lower inflammation. All of these can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.
The researchers plan to follow participants to see if the cardiovascular effects persist even after they stop taking the drug. Wegovy is widely considered to be a lifelong weight loss drug. When you stop taking it, your weight tends to come back on.
But because semaglutide is relatively new, “we don’t know as much about the true long-term effects as we would like to know,” Dr. Yancey said.
More than 16% of Wegovy participants discontinued the trial due to side effects or other issues, compared with about 8% in the placebo group. Some of the people taking Wegovy are: You are more likely to experience gastrointestinal problems.
“We need to be very thoughtful about administering these drugs, and we need to closely monitor patients,” Dr. Yancey said.
Previous trials have shown that Wegovy can help reduce symptoms of heart failure in people with obesity and a heart condition known as preserved ejection fraction. Novo Nordisk is also exploring other uses for semaglutide, including in the treatment of kidney disease.
Dr. Scott Hagan, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington who studies obesity, said the new findings could put more pressure on more insurance companies to cover Wegobee and could force Medicare to do so. Ta. Lindsay Allen, a health economist at Northwestern Medicine, said the increased demand from the test results could make it even harder to find Wegobees, which are already in short supply. Wegovy’s list price is more than $1,300 per month without insurance, making it difficult to access for some patients.
Dr. Allen said the study could have another important outcome: It encourages the medical profession and the broader public to view Wegoby and Ozempic as treatments for chronic disease, rather than just vanity drugs. He said that this was the case.
“This clearly signals a change in thinking about these weight loss drugs,” Dr. Allen says.
