Weight loss drug semaglutide could boost heart health of up to 93M patients in U.S. alone

Overall, the authors calculated that approximately 93 million patients would be eligible for treatment with semaglutide. This could result in approximately 43 million fewer U.S. adults with obesity and a reduction in that population’s total adverse cardiovascular events of up to 1.5 million.

Lead author Nathan D. Wong, PhD, a preventive cardiologist and professor with the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, described semaglutide potential for overweight and obese patients as “one of the biggest advances in the obesity and cardiovascular medicine world” in a prepared statement.

“We now have a weight control therapy that also significantly reduces cardiovascular events beyond the diabetes population where it was originally studied,” Wong said. “It should be considered for patients who are obese or overweight with other risk factors where cardiovascular disease is their leading cause of disability and death.”

Wong does have a working relationship with multiple vendors, including Novo Nordisk. In addition, Novo Nordisk helped fund this study.

Novo Nordisk plans on seeking regulatory approval for semaglutide as a treatment for cardiovascular disease in the United States and Europe in the near future. For now, it has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for this specific indication.

Read the full analysis here.