Still life of Wegovy an injectable prescription weight loss medicine that has helped individuals with obesity. It must be used with a weight loss plan and physical activity.
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Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy cut the risk of serious cardiovascular complications in individuals with obesity and heart disease in a closely watched trial, demonstrating a very large effect on heart attacks, a promising latest frontier for the drug.
The roughly 17,500-person Select study tested Wegovy in individuals with obesity and heart disease but who didn’t have diabetes. Weekly injections of Wegovy slashed the general risk of heart attack, stroke and death from cardiovascular causes by 20%, in keeping with detailed results from the trial presented Saturday on the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions and concurrently published within the Latest England Journal of Medicine. Novo Nordisk disclosed topline data from the study in August.
The findings could expand insurance coverage of Wegovy, a serious barrier up to now for the drug and similar GLP-1 agonists, and spur broader use of the anti-obesity drug.
“That is the primary time that medication approved for chronic obesity management will be considered life saving,” said Dr. Robert Kushner, a professor of medicine in endocrinology on the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine who was involved with the study.
The brand new data could also help the Danish pharmaceutical company maintain its lead over Eli Lilly, whose competing weight-loss drug Zepbound was approved within the U.S. earlier this week. Zepbound has been shown to assist people lose more weight, nevertheless it hasn’t yet demonstrated an effect on cardiovascular outcomes.
“For those who take a look at where the insurance firms are going to be obliged to go, they are going to be obliged to go together with the drug that reduces cardiovascular events,” said Dr. Howard Weintraub, clinical director of the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Heart who was involved with the study.
Trial results
Wegovy reduced the risk of non-fatal heart attack by 28% within the five-year trial. It produced a smaller 7% reduction within the occurrence of non-fatal stroke, though few strokes were seen within the trial overall.
What’s more, Wegovy began to point out a discount in overall cardiovascular events inside months of participants starting the drug, with the difference between the drug and placebo widening because the study continued.
About two-thirds of participants had blood sugar levels that put them within the range of prediabetes. Wegovy decreased progression to diabetes by 73%, suggesting the drug might be used as an early treatment. Novo’s Ozempic, which uses the identical energetic ingredient as Wegovy, is approved for diabetes.
The study enrolled each patients whose body-mass index met the brink for chubby or obesity, though most of the patients were considered obese.
Unwanted effects and limitations
Almost 17% of people receiving Wegovy within the trial stopped taking the drug, mainly because of gastrointestinal issues like vomiting and diarrhea, double the speed of individuals who discontinued the placebo. But more people within the control group experienced serious hostile events comparable to cardiac disorders and medical procedures.
The discontinuations may reflect less familiarity with Wegovy amongst doctors involved within the study, said Kushner, who focuses on caring for patients who’re chubby or have obesity. Adjusting the dosage or tweaking eating regimen may help people navigate unpleasant unintended effects.
Participants also lost less weight on this study than previous ones examining Wegovy, though this study didn’t incorporate lifestyle changes and it enrolled individuals with different characteristics.
One limitation of the study was its lack of diversity. Nearly three-quarters of the participants were male, and much more were white. Nearly 4% of participants were Black.
Regardless, doctors expect the outcomes to extend the number of individuals who take Wegovy.
Seeing a diabetes drug producing positive cardiovascular and metabolic effects “opens a latest door to treat obese patients with heart problems,” said Dr. George Dangas, surgical director for the structural heart program on the Mount Sinai Health System. However it could take time and energy to include it into clinical practice.
“Those are good problems to have,” Dangas said. “We now have something good for the patient, that is great.”
— CNBC’s Patrick Manning contributed to this report.