Weight loss drug could reduce heart attack risk by 20%, study finds | Medical research

A weight-loss injection could reduce the risk of heart attacks and benefit the cardiovascular health of millions of adults in the UK, in what could be the biggest medical breakthrough since statins, according to a study.

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

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

Prof John Deanfield, director of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and lead author of the study, said the findings showed the drug should be routinely prescribed to treat cardiovascular disease and that millions of people in the UK could be taking the drug through the next few years.

“This fantastic drug is truly a game changer. This [study] suggests that there are potentially alternative mechanisms here for this improved cardiovascular outcome with semaglutide beyond weight loss…There is clearly something else going on 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. Participants who had previously experienced a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack were prescribed either a 2.5 mg weekly dose of semaglutide or a placebo for an average of 40 months.

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

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

Deanfield said that in the 1990s, statins — drugs that lower cholesterol — were considered a medical breakthrough and revolutionized the practice of cardiology, and he said semaglutide could be seen as groundbreaking in terms of improving cardiovascular health. “We now have a class of drugs that can equally transform many chronic diseases of aging,” he said.

Prof. Jason Halford, President of the European Association for the Study of Obesitysaid that because the drug could be seen to improve cardiovascular health, it could be cost-effective to prescribe it widely.

“I think in the next 10 years we’re going to see a radical change in the approach to health care,” he said. “Once costs are reduced, the cost savings to the NHS will be significant. There are already people in the Treasury who are thinking about the savings to the economy because of the potential for productivity gains. You have to prepare your workforce as best you can.”

Around 7.6 million people in the UK are living with heart or blood 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 from their waist over a four-year period, while the placebo group lost 1.5% of body weight and 1.3 cm of waist.

A separate study looking at a new weight loss tool found it could be far more effective than those already on the market. Retatrutide, a weekly injection, works by suppressing appetite and also by 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 period of 48 weeks. Researchers say it’s more effective for weight loss than Ozempic or Wegovy, which only work by suppressing appetite.

Prof Naveed Sattar of the University of Glasgow, who has worked on trials of other weight loss treatments, said: ‘Five or 10 years ago we would never have imagined drugs that would cause this kind of weight loss. The study suggests that retatrutide hasn’t plateaued yet, so more weight loss is likely. If we give this drug even longer, I think it can reach almost 30% of someone’s body weight.