Health is wealth: new weight loss drug helps to improve heart conditions

Amidst a clinical trial researchers discovered a new weight loss drug can reduce the risk of a stroke or heart attack.

Originally approved for use in June 2021, Wegovy has become one of the most popular prescription weight loss drugs, so much so there was a supply shortage towards the end of 2022.

However, the makers of the drug, Novo Nordisk, have now claimed a new study has found it cuts the risk of a cardiovascular event in overweight people with heart disease by a fifth. As a result, the organisation hailed it a ‘landmark trial’, claiming it would change the way obesity is regarded and treated.

Within the trial, which examined more than 17,600 adults aged 45 and older and took place over a five-year period, researchers discovered that patients who were given a 2.4mg once-weekly dose of Wegovy, plus standard care for heart attacks and strokes, saw their risk of a heart attack or a stroke reduce by 20% compared with those given a placebo drug.

The full details of the trial are yet to be released, but Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, from the University of Cambridge, who has already seen them, claimed they ‘did not disappoint’.

Professor O’Raphilly said: ‘The obvious conclusion of these findings if that we should view obesity as a medical condition, lie high blood pressure, where effective and safe drug therapy can contribute to reducing serious adverse health outcomes.’

Wegovy, which is often injected, is popular in places like America and was approved for weight loss in the NHS in England in June, will have to be passed by regulators again before it can be prescribed in a new capacity.

Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president of Novo Nordisk, said: ‘People living with obesity have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but to date there are no approved wight management medications proven to deliver effective weight management while also reducing the risk of heart, attack or cardiovascular death.’

Image: Olivier Collet