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The current trial was sponsored by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, and followed patients for two years. in locations around the world. Half of the participants received weekly injections of semaglutide while the other half received a placebo. Neither group knew which one they would get. More than three-quarters of the patients had previously experienced a heart attack and about a quarter had chronic heart failure. The average age of the volunteers was 61.6 years and about three-quarters were men.
In patients taking semaglutide, heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and a biomarker of inflammation decreased to a greater extent than in those receiving a placebo. But what interested trial investigators most was whether semaglutide could reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events. During the study, 234 patients in the semaglutide group experienced a nonfatal heart attack and 154 suffered a nonfatal stroke, compared with 322 and 165 in the placebo group, respectively. Of those who took semaglutide, 97 were hospitalized or visited an urgent care clinic for heart failure, compared with 122 who took a placebo. In total, 223 people in the semaglutide group died of cardiovascular causes, while 262 in the placebo group died during the trial.
“This is an exciting and innovative study that shows that treating obesity can save lives and reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events,” said Ariana Chao, a nutrition researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, who was not involved in the trial. .
Some patients discontinued the trial due to gastrointestinal symptoms associated with semaglutide. These included nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.Known Side Effects of GLP-1 Medications.
It is not entirely clear why semaglutide has such a large effect on cardiovascular risk. It is likely that much of the benefit can be explained by drug-induced weight loss. Those taking semaglutide in the latest trial lost an average of 9.4 percent of their body weight compared to people taking the placebo, who lost less than 1 percent.
But patients did not reach their maximum weight loss until about 65 weeks into the trial, suggesting that there may be other factors at play beyond weight loss. “In particular, differences in rates between the two treatment groups began to emerge very early after the start of treatment, within the first few months,” said A. Michael Lincoff, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic and one of the researchers on the rehearsal, at the press conference.
