Weight-loss jabs could become the ‘new statin’ for heart treatment after US regulators approve the drug

Wegovy, the hit weight-loss jab, could become “the new statin” after US regulators approved it as a treatment for heart disease.

This follows results from a major trial which found that the drug, known as semaglutide, could reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke in people with obesity by around 20 per cent.

Around 50,000 people in the UK who are obese or have at least one other weight-related problem (including heart problems) are already eligible to receive Wegovy on the NHS and will get those benefits.

But thousands more with heart disease who may be overweight but not obese could have access to it in the future after the company behind the drug, Novo Nordisk, applied to the UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ( MHRA), a similar update.

Professor Naveed Sattar, an obesity expert at the University of Glasgow, told The Mail on Sunday that “cardiologists are starting to take serious notice” of semaglutide as a treatment for cardiovascular disease.

And Professor David Strain of the University of Exeter said that, pending further research, it could eventually be used like statins, which are given to around eight million adults in the UK to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Professor Strain said: “At first statins were only for people with very high cholesterol, then they were for people with risk factors.”

“Now the evidence says that it doesn’t matter what your cholesterol is: a statin will benefit you once you reach a certain age.

“I think that will happen in the future with semaglutide.”

The drug, which is also used to treat type 2 diabetes under the brand name Ozempic, works by suppressing appetite and increasing the production of insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar.

But Professor Strain says there is growing evidence to suggest it also has a direct impact on the heart, which is not just linked to the beneficial effect of losing weight, although exactly how it helps the heart is still unknown.

“I am absolutely convinced that it is not just the reduction in obesity that has this effect,” he says. “Weight-loss surgery can cause similar weight loss, but the benefits on cardiovascular risk are not seen as quickly.”

A Novo Nordisk spokesperson said a decision from the MHRA was expected later this year.