Novo Nordisk's 'Weight-Loss Wonder Drug' Wegovy Reduces Cardiovascular Risk Independent of Weight Loss, New Study Shows

Cailian Press, May 14 (Editor Liu Rui)As early as November last year, the Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk officially announced that its globally popular weight-loss drug Wegovy (chemical name: semaglutide) can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

But at the time, some opinions questioned whether Wegovy's benefits to the heart might have been indirectly achieved through weight loss, rather than being a direct effect of the drug itself.

This week, a latest trial study found that the benefits of the "weight-loss wonder drug" Wegovy in reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke are not closely related to the patient's own weight changes. This means that Wegovy itself indeed has cardiovascular benefits, and those who do not need to lose weight but have cardiovascular risks may also be suitable for this "wonder drug."

Reducing Cardiovascular Risk Is Not Just About Weight Loss

The trial, named Select, is co-led by Professor John Deanfield, a cardiologist at University College London. This trial is the cornerstone for Novo Nordisk to convince insurance companies to cover Wegovy.

Professor Deanfield stated that the benefits of the drug on the heart were generally evident in patients participating in the Wegovy program. Among these participants, there were both overweight but not obese individuals and those who did not lose much weight after taking the medication.

According to detailed research results published by Novo Nordisk in November last year, patients treated with Wegovy injections had a 20% reduced risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular disease.

But in general, there is a significant overlap between the obese population and those with heart disease: according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, among Medicare beneficiaries in the United States alone, more than a quarter of those who are overweight and obese also suffer from heart disease, amounting to approximately 3.6 million people.

In this experiment, the researchers found that by the 20th week of the trial, 62% of the participants taking Wegovy had lost more than 5% of their initial body weight. More importantly,These patients who lost a significant amount of weight had similar reductions in cardiovascular risk compared to those who lost less than 5% of their body weight.

More Patients Can Use the "Weight Loss Wonder Drug"?

Dean Field presented the results at the European Congress on Obesity in Venice. The results suggest that millions of people could potentially benefit from taking this drug.

He said: "The biggest issue is the cost of health economics, the cost of taking measures early in the process as people move towards future diseases… This will be a clear case for doing some upstream work in obesity management."

Deanfield believes that the findings indicate Wegovy's benefits to the heart are not just a result of weight loss. He is unsure of the exact reason, but he speculates that one possible cause might be reduced inflammation.

He said: "When you look not only at how much people eat, but also at what they eat, you find that their diet has completely changed. When you take these kinds of drugs, there are all sorts of subtle changes that may impact the outcome, which we hadn't realized before."

Novo Nordisk’s Head of Research, Martin Holst Lange, believes that the main drivers of this benefit are weight loss, reduced inflammation, and lower blood pressure. However, the pharmaceutical company is also investigating other factors, including the impact on specific proteins. Lange stated, “We have other analyses showing that weight reduction does play a role, but it doesn’t account for everything.”

Donna Ryan, an honorary professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, helped lead the trial.

He indicated that, unlike the previous Wegovy weight-loss studies, the doctors conducting this Select trial had more leeway to experiment, such as allowing patients to continue taking lower doses of the drug or pausing treatment in the event of side effects, which better reflects real-world treatment scenarios.