| By Elaine Chen |
PHILADELPHIA — Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy notably cut the risk of heart attacks in a landmark cardiovascular trial that affirms the treatment offers health benefits beyond weight loss.
The company in August had announced that in this trial, called Select, Wegovy reduced the overall rate of major heart problems — heart attacks, stroke, or cardiovascular-related death — by 20%. That finding, which was the primary outcome the trial set out to study, was stronger than many were expecting and led Novo’s stock to surge.
The overall 20% risk reduction in heart problems translated to 15 complications prevented for every 1,000 patients treated.
Wegovy specifically cut the rate of heart attacks by 28% among patients who were already taking statins and other medications to prevent heart problems, according to the results, simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The drug also reduced the rate of cardiovascular-related deaths by 15% and strokes by 7%. In addition, people on Wegovy experienced a 19% lower rate of death from any causes.
In part due to the way the trial was designed, the primary outcome that looked at overall cardiovascular risk was the only result that was considered statistically significant. Still, doctors hailed the full findings, especially the reductions in rates of heart attacks and all-cause deaths.
The study had “overall really impressive results,” said Nicholas Marston, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who was not involved in the study, noting that the reduction in general cardiovascular risk emerged early on and continued to increase over the course of the trial.
Wegovy, along with its sister diabetes drug, Ozempic, are part of a growing class of GLP-1-based medications, which have exploded in popularity for causing substantial weight loss. However insurers have been reluctant to pay for the medications, viewing them as cosmetic rather than medical treatments. Select is the first trial to show that an obesity drug improves cardiovascular outcomes, representing a key milestone not only for Novo, but also for the cardiology field.
“This is the first weight management therapy that we’ve proven in a rigorous trial to reduce the excess risk of cardiovascular events associated with overweight and obesity,” A. Michael Lincoff, lead investigator of the trial and an interventional cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said in an interview. “This now establishes overweight and obesity as a new pathway, another modifiable risk factor, that we can treat in patients with cardiovascular disease.”
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