Millions of people should be routinely prescribed weight-loss injections to reduce their chances of heart attack and stroke, in what has been hailed as the biggest advance since statins.
The largest study ever conducted on these drugs found that the key ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy was a “game changer” for heart patients, even those who did not lose weight.
In a breakthrough, the weekly injection was found to reduce the chances of dying and having further attacks by a fifth, in addition to the benefits of other medications.
Britain’s top cardiologist said it was the most significant advance in heart disease since the 1990s and would “change clinical practice”.
Professor John Deanfield, of University College London, said it conclusively demonstrates that semaglutide is not just an anti-obesity drug as it “targets the underlying biology of chronic diseases”.
The largest study ever conducted on these drugs found that the key ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy was a “game changer” for heart patients, even those who did not lose weight.
The findings suggest it could one day be used to help treat everything from cancer to kidney disease.
He told the European Congress on Obesity in Venice: ‘In the 90s, when statins came out, we finally discovered that there was a class of drugs that would change the biology of this disease.
‘That was a breakthrough in transforming the practice of cardiology. We now have a class of drugs that could also transform many chronic diseases of aging.
‘We are starting to see with this class of drugs that cardiovascular diseases (perhaps other diseases that we will hear about in the coming months) improve with this drug.
“There will be a lot of people who will benefit.”
The discovery will transform the way the NHS treats heart disease with the new class of drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, likely to be prescribed by the end of this decade.
Experts said they could be given to patients in the same way statins or blood pressure pills are now given to millions of people.
Around 8 million people in the UK suffer from heart disease, which the British Heart Foundation estimates costs the UK economy £25 billion each year.
The SELECT trial involved 17,604 adults diagnosed with heart problems, overweight or obese from 41 countries, who took the drug for three years.
Administered once a week at the same dosage as Wegovy, the shot was found to have the same benefits for patients’ heart health regardless of their weight.
The group taking semaglutide had a 20 percent lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from heart disease and typically lost about ten percent of their body weight.
This effect was observed regardless of weight loss, suggesting that the drugs target an underlying biological mechanism, such as inflammation, that is linked to chronic diseases, including cancer.
Doctors believe this could be due to mechanisms such as improved blood sugar, blood pressure or inflammation, as well as direct effects on the heart muscle and blood vessels.
Professor Deanfield, who is the government’s first champion of personalized prevention, said he would recommend it to ministers, adding that its use would have to be approved by regulators.
About half of his patients with heart disease have a body mass index greater than 27, which puts them in the overweight category, and would benefit from semaglutide, he said.
Semaglutide could be prescribed as an additional treatment for heart problems along with statins and blood pressure medications, and almost all trial participants already take statins.
Wegovy and Ozempic work by causing the body to produce a hormone called GLP-1 that is released naturally from the intestines after meals.
He added: “I would say there is much less resistance to these medications than to continuing to take statins.
“This is a real change in the way we help many with a range of illnesses, chronic illnesses, that are currently not treated very well by the NHS.”
Made by Novo Nordisk, semaglutide is the first in a new generation of anti-obesity drugs that suppress appetite by mimicking the hormone GLP-1.
Known as Ozempic, it was initially used to treat type 2 diabetes before being repurposed as the weight loss drug Wegovy, which is given at a higher dose.
Scientists believe the drug’s benefits extend beyond weight loss, and trials are underway in diseases such as Parkinson’s and kidney disease.
Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the UK, causing 68,000 deaths and more than 250,000 hospital admissions each year.
Professor Jason Halford, president of the European Association for the Study of Obesity, said the new research highlights how GLP-1 drugs will transform medical treatment over the next decade.
He said: ‘I think in the next 10 years we will see a radical change in the approach to healthcare.
‘Once costs come down, the cost savings for the NHS will be significant.
‘There are already people in the Treasury thinking about saving for the economy because of the opportunity to boost productivity. “You need your workforce to be as fit as possible.”
