Novo Nordisk says Wegovy heart benefits due to more than weight loss
By Patrick Wingrove
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) — Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) on Saturday said the heart protective benefits of its wildly popular Wegovy obesity treatment are due to more than weight loss alone, according to new data presented at a major medical meeting on Saturday.
Early data from the Danish drugmaker's Select trial released in August demonstrated that Wegovy, which has been shown to help patients lose an average of 15% of their weight, also reduced incidence of heart attack, stroke or death from heart disease by 20%.
Full results from the study, presented at the American Heart Association annual scientific meeting in Philadelphia and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest the drug has other beneficial effects beyond the known health benefits from losing weight.
The heart risk difference between patients who received Wegovy, known chemically as semaglutide, and those on placebo began to appear almost immediately after starting treatment, researchers said.
In the study of overweight and obese patients based on body mass index who had preexisting heart disease but not diabetes, Wegovy reduced the risk of non-fatal heart attack by 28%, non-fatal stroke by 7% and heart-related death by 15% compared to a placebo.
Given that patients had not started losing weight when the cardiovascular benefits first appeared suggests the heart protection was not purely the result of weight loss, Novo said.
The researchers said that while understanding of the mechanisms of the cardiovascular protection from semaglutide remain speculative, there was a consistent effect on associated risk factors that support the idea that multiple pathways are behind the drug's clinical benefit.
The associated risk factors include
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