Over a 10-Year Period, Wegovy Could Avert 1.5 Million Heart Attacks and Strokes

According to a study published this week, Novo Nordisk’s groundbreaking weight loss injection, Wegovy, has the potential to prevent up to 1.5 million cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, in the United States over a 10-year period.

Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, who partly received funding from Novo Nordisk, also discovered that Wegovy could lead to a reduction of 43 million Americans with obesity over a decade.

These findings align with the initial data released by the Danish company last week from a large clinical trial, which demonstrated that Wegovy can reduce the risk of serious heart problems and heart-related death by 20%.

While Novo Nordisk’s trial focused on overweight or obese patients with established cardiovascular disease, UC Irvine’s study examined similar patients without the disease. Together, the results suggest that Wegovy, and potentially other obesity drugs, offer significant health benefits beyond weight loss alone.

Physicians and Wall Street analysts are hopeful that this could eventually increase pressure on insurers to cover the cost of obesity medications, which can exceed $1,000 per month.

“This represents a major advancement in the fields of obesity and cardiovascular medicine,” stated Nathan Wong, the study’s lead researcher and director of UC Irvine’s Heart Disease Prevention Program. “We now have a weight control therapy that also significantly reduces cardiovascular events, extending beyond the original diabetes population it was studied on.”

The study’s projections were based on Novo Nordisk’s STEP 1 trial, which demonstrated that Wegovy helped patients lose 15% of their body weight and reduce their cardiovascular risk factors.

The results estimated that approximately 93 million American adults would be eligible for the STEP 1 trial, which excluded individuals with Type 2 diabetes. Of these eligible individuals, it is projected that 43 million would no longer be classified as obese after 10 years of Wegovy treatment.

Additionally, an estimated 83 million Americans without established cardiovascular disease would experience heart health benefits after a decade of Wegovy usage.

Among this population, Wegovy would reduce the risk of serious heart problems by 17.8%, translating to the prevention of 1.5 million heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular events.

It is important to note that the analysis did not estimate the potential additional events that could be prevented among eligible adults with established cardiovascular disease.

Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug, Ozempic, created a frenzy in the weight loss industry last year due to their efficacy in helping patients shed excess weight. Both drugs belong to a category known as GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone in the gut to suppress appetite.

However, Novo Nordisk currently faces supply constraints that have resulted in shortages of both drugs.

Furthermore, there have been reports of patients experiencing suicidal thoughts and engaging in self-harm after taking Wegovy and other weight loss medications. This raises concerns about the unintended and potentially life-threatening side effects of these treatments.