YORK, Pa. — Wegovy is a version of the diabetes treatment Ozempic, which already was shown to reduce the risk of serious heart problems in people who have diabetes.
A new study looked to see if the same was true in those who don't have diabetes.
The Novo Nordisk's trial involved over 17,000 people ages 45 or older from 41 different countries. Everyone was overweight with a body mass index of 27 or higher, and all had cardiovascular disease.
They were split into two groups. One got semiglutide, the active drug in Wegovy, while the other, a placebo. After two years, researchers found those taking semiglutide reduced their risk of serious heart problems by a staggering 20%.
"This is really significant because we looked at this medication in non-diabetic patients previously known as Ozempic, we know there's been some risk reduction with that, but it's more astounding to see even without diabetes you're still having a significant risk reduction in cardiac vascular disease," said Dr. Michael Farbaniec of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Experts say the findings could eventually prevent heart attacks and put pressure on health insurers to cover the cost of the medication, which can be several hundred dollars a month.
While this admittedly sounds great, the research team is planning additional analysis over the next year to examine it more closely.
For more information about the study, click here.