The Obesity Drug Revolution Just Got Real

livemint.com:

Medicare coverage. That will have significant implications for our society, where four in 10 adults are obese, as well as for investors in this space’s emerging duopoly: Eli Lilly and Novo. We always knew Wegovy, the weekly anti-obesity injections, helps patients lose weight.

But now we have confirmation that the medication helps prevent strokes and heart attacks as well. Novo said on Tuesday that patients in a long-term trial, the first of its kind, had 20% fewer heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths, combined, than those who received a placebo in the study. The reduction surpassed the study’s goal of demonstrating at least a 17% reduction in risk.

The news was described by Wall Street analysts as a best-case result, and sent the stocks of both Novo and Lilly soaring. Evan Seigerman, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, called it a “home run scenario." What is new about this study is that it excluded patients with diabetes. It was already known that GLP-1s, which have primarily been used in diabetic patients, help reduce heart disease for them.

In fact, a study of Wegovy sister drug Ozempic had previously found that the Novo drug reduced the incidence of adverse cardiac events by about 26% relative to placebo. What the latest study, called Select, shows, is that the benefit is also conferred to non-diabetic obese and overweight patients. Novo Nordisk said Tuesday it plans to seek U.S.

and European regulatory approvals to add the evidence of a heart benefit to Wegovy’s prescribing label. The results will also strengthen the companies’ effort to lobby for better insurance coverage, just as some employers had started balking at the cost, cutting off the medication to employees. The surging demand for GLP-1s has