The present trial was sponsored by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, and tracked sufferers for 2 years at places worldwide. Half of the individuals acquired weekly injections of semaglutide whereas the different half acquired a placebo. Neither group knew which they had been getting. More than three-quarters of the sufferers had beforehand skilled a coronary heart assault, and near a quarter had continual coronary heart failure. The common age of the volunteers was 61.6, and about three-quarters had been males.
In sufferers taking semaglutide, coronary heart price, blood stress, levels of cholesterol, and a biomarker of irritation dropped by a bigger diploma than in these getting a placebo. But what the trial investigators had been most in was whether or not semaglutide might cut back the threat of main cardiovascular occasions. During the examine, 234 sufferers in the semaglutide group skilled a nonfatal coronary heart assault, and 154 had a nonfatal stroke, in contrast with 322 and 165 in the placebo group, respectively. Out of these taking semaglutide, 97 had been hospitalized or visited an pressing care clinic for coronary heart failure, in contrast with 122 taking a placebo. Overall, 223 individuals in the semaglutide group died from cardiovascular causes, whereas 262 on the placebo handed away throughout the trial.
“This is an exciting and groundbreaking study demonstrating that obesity treatment can save lives and reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events,” says Ariana Chao, a vitamin researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, who wasn’t concerned in the trial.
Some sufferers discontinued the trial as a result of of gastrointestinal signs related to semaglutide. Those included nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea—identified uncomfortable side effects of GLP-1 medicine.
It’s not completely clear why semaglutide has such a huge impact on cardiovascular threat. Much of the profit can probably be defined by weight reduction induced by the drug. Those on semaglutide in the newest trial misplaced a median of 9.4 p.c of their physique weight in contrast with individuals taking the placebo, who misplaced lower than 1 p.c.
But sufferers didn’t hit their most weight reduction till round 65 weeks into the trial, suggesting that there could also be different components at play past simply weight reduction. “Notably, the differences in rates between the two treatment groups began to emerge very early after initiation of treatment within the first months,” mentioned A. Michael Lincoff, a heart specialist at the Cleveland Clinic and one of the investigators on the trial, at the information convention.