Wegovy helps reduce symptoms of heart failure in obese people: study

Wegovy, the popular weight loss drug from Novo Nordisk, has significantly reduced the symptoms of a common type of diabetes. Heart failure In patients with obesity, according to the late clinical stage trial Released Friday.

Wegovy helped mitigate symptoms Such as shortness of breath, fatigue, swollen legs, and irregular heartbeat. It also led to lower blood pressure and lower inflammation, two important markers of heart health.

The findings add to Wegovy’s growing list of potential health benefits that go beyond shedding unwanted weight. This may lead to expanded use of the drug and increased coverage by insurance companies. The findings also complement data from a pilot trial released earlier this month by Novo Nordisk, which found Wegovy cut the risk of serious heart-related problems by 20%.

“We look forward to working closely with the clinical community and regulators to help realize this potential over the coming months,” Martin Lang, Novo Nordisk’s chief development officer, said in a statement. He was referring to the heart-healthy benefits observed in both trials.

The new study of 529 obese patients focused on a heart condition known as preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF — a condition that makes up nearly half of all cases of heart failure in the United States and occurs when the lower chamber of the heart pumps less blood than it needs. the body.

appreciate 2.5 million people In the United States suffer from this condition, and more than 80% of these patients are also obese.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that Wegovy resulted in an improvement of about 17 points on a 100-point scale used to assess HFpEF symptoms.

In comparison, patients who received the placebo improved by 9 points.

Wegovy also led to improvements in physical limitations: Patients who took the drug were able to walk a longer distance in six minutes than those who took a placebo.

People who used Wegovy also lost about 13% of their body weight, compared to 2.6% for those who took the placebo, over the course of the year-long trial.

There were fewer serious safety events in patients who took Wegovy than in those who took placebo. But more patients stopped taking Wiggoi due to gastrointestinal problems, which are commonly seen with other weight loss drugs.

One limitation of the trial was its lack of diversity: 96% of the participants were white.

Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic sparked a gold rush in the weight loss industry last year for helping patients lose unwanted weight. It is part of a class of medications called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that is produced in the intestines to suppress a person’s appetite.

But Novo Nordisk faces supply constraints that have led to shortages of both drugs.

There is, too recent reports of patients having suicidal thoughts and self-harm after taking Wigovy and other weight-loss drugs, raising questions about unintended and potentially life-threatening side effects of the treatments