This is the new drug that the FDA has recommended to prevent heart attacks
Already sought after for its weight loss properties, the blockbuster drug Wegovy has been approved by the FDA to reduce the risk of serious heart problems.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Novo Nordisk’s blockbuster weight loss drug for a new purpose. “Wegovy is now the first weight loss medication to also be approved to help prevent life-threatening cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight,” said John Sharretts, FDA’s director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in a statement.
Wegovy is already highly sought after for its weight loss properties, which was first approved by the FDA to treat obesity in June 2021. It has been shown to help patients lose an average of 15 percent of their weight after 68 weeks of treatment. The greenlight by the agency for its new use to reduce the risk of serious heart problems will open the door for even more patients to use Wegovy. As well, potentially broaden insurance coverage for the Danish pharmaceutical company’s drug despite its high cost, over $1,300 per month.
The FDA has recommended Wegovy to prevent heart attacks
Novo Nordisk, in November, presented the full results of a large multi-year clinical trial it ran on adults 45 and older. The more than 17,000 participants had an established cardiovascular disease and were overweight or had obesity but no prior history of diabetes. The Danish drugmaker said that Wegovy, known chemically as semaglutide, was shown to reduce the risk of non-fatal stroke by 7 percent, non-fatal heart attack by 28 percent and heart-related death by 15 percent compared with a placebo.
The exact mechanism behind the heart protection semaglutide provides remains unclear, said the researchers. However, Novo Nordisk said that it was not solely a result of weight loss since the patients had not begun losing weight when the cardiovascular benefits appeared. Participants on average did lose nearly 10 percent of their total body weight during the trial lasting generally 33 months.
The FDA noted in its press release announcing the approval of Wegovy for reducing the risk of serious heart problems that obesity and overweight are serious health issues that affect around 70 percent of American adults.
“This patient population has a higher risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke,” said Sharretts. “Providing a treatment option that is proven to lower this cardiovascular risk is a major advance for public health.”