Weight-loss drug could reduce risk of heart attacks by 20%, new study finds

Study suggests those with mild obesity or who have lost only a small amount of weight could have an improved cardiovascular outcome.

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

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

The study, presented at the European Congress of Obesity (ECO) and led by researchers at University College London, also found semaglutide brought about cardiovascular benefits for its participants, regardless of their starting weight or the amount of weight that they had lost. 

It suggests those with mild obesity or who have lost only a small amount of weight could have an improved cardiovascular outcome.

Prof John Deanfield, the director of the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research and the lead author of the study, said the findings showed the medication should be routinely prescribed to treat cardiovascular illnesses.

'A gamechanger'

“This fantastic drug really is a gamechanger. This [study] suggests that here are potentially alternative mechanisms for that improved cardiovascular outcome with semaglutide beyond weight loss … Quite clearly, something else is going on that benefits the cardiovascular system,” Prof Deanfield said.

The study involved 17,604 adults aged 45 and over with a body mass index of over 27 from across 41 countries. The participants, who had also previously experienced a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack, were prescribed either a 2.5mg weekly dose of semaglutide or a placebo for an average period of 40 months.

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

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

Prof Jason Halford, president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, said as the medication could be seen to improve cardiovascular health, it could be economically beneficial for it to be prescribed widely.

Another study based on the same clinical trial found participants who were 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 1.3cm from the waist.