Weight-loss drug could cut heart attack risk by 20%, study finds

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 biggest medical breakthrough since statins, a study has found.

It found that participants taking the drug semaglutide, the active ingredient in brands such as Wegovy and Ozempic, had a 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular disease.

The study, presented at the European Obesity Congress (ECO) and led by researchers at University College London, also found that semaglutide provided cardiovascular benefits to its participants, regardless of their starting weight or how much weight they lost. they had lost It suggests that those who are mildly obese or who have lost only a small amount of weight may have an improved cardiovascular outcome.

Professor John Deanfield, director of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and lead author of the study, said the results showed the drug should be routinely prescribed to treat cardiovascular disease and that millions of people across the UK could be taking the medicine. medication in the coming years.

This fantastic drug really is a game changer. this [study] suggests that there are potentially alternative mechanisms for improved cardiovascular outcome with semaglutide beyond weight loss. Clearly, there’s something else that benefits the cardiovascular system, Deanfield said.

The study included 17,604 adults aged 45 and older with a body mass index greater than 27 from 41 countries. The participants, who had also previously experienced a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack, were prescribed a weekly dose of 2.5 mg of semaglutide or a placebo for an average period of 40 months.

Of the 8,803 patients in the semaglutide group, 569 (6.5%) experienced a primary cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack, compared with 701 (8%) of the 8,801 patients in the placebo group.

Semaglutide under the brand name Wegovy is prescribed for weight loss on the NHS from 2023.

In the 1990s, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs were considered a medical breakthrough and revolutionary in the treatment of cardiology practice, Deanfield said, and he said semaglutide could be seen as similarly groundbreaking. in terms of improving cardiovascular health. We now have a class of drugs that could also transform many chronic diseases of aging, he said.

Professor Jason Halford, president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, said that because the drug can be seen to improve cardiovascular health, it could be economically beneficial for it to be widely prescribed.

I think in the next 10 years we will see a radical change in the approach to health, he said. Once costs come down, the cost savings to the NHS will be significant. There are already people in the Treasury thinking about saving the economy for the opportunity to increase productivity. You need to get your workforce as fit as possible.

Around 7.6 million people in the UK are living with heart or circulatory disease, according to the British Heart Foundation.

Another study based on the same clinical trial found that participants prescribed semaglutide lost an average of 10.2% of their body weight and 7.7cm of their waist over a four-year period, while that the placebo group lost 1.5% of body weight and 1.3% waist cm.

A separate study looking at a new slimming jab has found it could be far more effective than those already on the market. Retatrutide, a weekly injection, works by suppressing appetite and also helping the body burn more fat, according to its Phase 2 clinical trial.

The trial of 338 participants living with obesity showed that participants lost 24% of their body weight over a 48-week period. Researchers say it’s more effective for weight loss than Ozempic or Wegovy, which only work by suppressing appetite.

Professor Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, who has worked on trials of other weight loss treatments, said: Five or 10 years ago, we could never have imagined drugs causing this kind of weight loss. The trial suggests that retatrutide had not yet stabilized, so more weight loss will likely be seen. If we give this drug even longer, I think it could reach almost 30% of someone’s body weight.