STUDY: OBESITY DRUG WEGOVY CUT RISK OF HEART ISSUES

Researchers see 20% reduction in risk of stroke, heart attack

A pivotal new study suggests that the weight-loss drug Wegovy cut the risk of heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular issues by 20 percent among overweight or obese people with heart disease — a striking benefit that could change the standard of care for these patients.

“We’ve just identified a new best practice,” said Dr. Clyde Yancy, chief of the division of cardiology at Northwestern Medicine, who was not involved with the study. But the research also raises questions about exactly how the drug helps the heart — through weight loss itself, or other mechanisms — and whether it can be as effective in a real-world setting, with a more diverse group of patients than those included in the trial.

Still, the results of the study, presented Saturday in a standingroom-only session at an American Heart Association meeting in Philadelphia, are a turning point for the sought-after new class of obesity and diabetes drugs that also includes Ozempic and the newly approved Zepbound. Drug companies see potential for the medicines that extends far beyond obesity. Proving that the drugs not only treat diabetes and help patients lose weight, but can lower the risk of other serious diseases linked with obesity, could further drive demand — and pressure insurance companies to cover them at a broader scale.

The research is “one of the most anticipated trials in the last 10 years,” said Dr. Yuan Lu, an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Yale School of Medicine who was not involved in the study. Outside of statins, she said, no medication has so dramatically reduced cardiovascular risk among people with heart disease. “The uptake of this drug is going to be skyrocketing in the next couple of years,” she said.

Novo Nordisk, the company that makes Wegovy and Ozempic and that funded the study, said it has already filed paperwork with the Food and Drug Administration and regulators in the European Union to update Wegovy’s label to include that it can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in certain patients.

Dr. Martin Lange, the company’s executive vice president of development, said he was “very confident” the FDA will approve the new indication.

The study is the longest and largest trial yet of semaglutide, the compound in Ozempic and Wegovy; it is also the biggest clinical trial Novo Nordisk has ever conducted. It followed more than 17,000 adults 45 and older for up to five years. The vast majority were White, and more than two-thirds were men. Most participants in the trial were already taking statins, which are widely recommended for people at risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke. The study excluded people with diabetes; Ozempic is already approved to lower the risk of heart attack, death or stroke in adults with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.