Ozempic slashes heart attack and stroke risk

MILLIONS of Britons should be prescribed weight-loss jabs to slash their chances of heart attack and stroke, cardiologists said yesterday.

The biggest study yet on Ozempic and Wegovy found their key ingredient was a ‘game-changer’ for heart patients, including those who did not lose weight.

It found the weekly shot cut by a fifth their risk of further heart attacks or death. Britain’s top cardiologist said it would ‘change clinical practice’.

John Deanfield of University College London said the study proved semaglutide was more than an obesity drug because it ‘targets the underlying biology of chronic diseases’.

The findings suggest that it could be used to treat everything from cancer to kidney disease.

Professor Deanfield told the European Congress on Obesity in Venice: ‘In the 90s when statins came in, we finally figured out that there was a class of drugs

‘A lot of people will benefit’

that would change the biology of this disease. That was a major breakthrough to transform cardiology practice.

‘We now have a class of drugs that could equally transform many chronic diseases of ageing. We’re starting to see with this class of drugs that cardiovascular diseases – maybe other diseases we’re going to hear about in the next few months – get better with this drug.

‘There will be a lot of people who will benefit.’

The discovery is set to transform how the NHS treats heart disease with the new class of drugs – known as GLP-1 agonists – likely to be prescribed by the end of the decade. Experts said they could be dished out to patients in the same way statins or blood pressure pills are given now.

Around eight million Britons have heart disease, which the British Heart Foundation estimates costs the economy £25billion a year.

The landmark SELECT trial involved 17,604 adults, from 41 countries, diagnosed with heart problems and who were overweight or obese, and who took semaglutide medication over three years.

Given once weekly at the same dose as Wegovy, the jab was found to have the same heart health benefits to patients, regardless of their weight. The group who took it, rather than a placebo, had a 20 per cent lower risk of heart attack, stroke or death from heart disease, and typically lost around 10 per cent of their body weight.

This effect was seen regardless of weight loss, suggesting the drugs target an underlying biological mechanism such as inflammation, which is linked to chronic diseases including cancer.

Doctors believe this could be due to mechanisms such as improvements to blood sugar, blood pressure or inflammation, as well as direct effects on the heart muscle and blood vessels.

Professor Deanfield said he would be recommending it to ministers, but its use would need approval by regulators.