Overweight and obese people with heart disease were less likely to die during a three-year trial if taking semaglutide, a study published Friday found.
Adults with cardiovascular disease and excess weight took either semaglutide or a placebo and were monitored as part of a trial funded by semaglutide manufacturer Novo Nordisk.
After an average of three years, 833 of the 17,500 participants had died. People in the group taking semaglutide were 19 percent less likely to die, 15 percent less likely to die from heart problems, and 23 percent less likely to die from a non-heart-related causes, including COVID-19.
The pandemic began during the trial, and about 1 in 4 participants reported contracting the virus. Scientists at Harvard Medical School found that semaglutide did not seem to make a difference when it came to the rate at which participants developed COVID-19.
However, among those who contracted the virus, subjects who were taking semaglutide were less likely to develop serious health consequences—232 compared with 277—or die—43 compared with 65—from COVID-19.
Participants in the trial who took semaglutide were given weekly injections of 2.4 mg of the drug, equivalent to taking Wegovy—the Novo Nordisk brand name for semaglutide—when prescribed for weight loss.
Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analog that attempts to mimic the fullness hormone GLP-1. It has been shown to help control blood sugar, decrease appetite, slow digestion and speed metabolism—the effect being that people taking the medication tend to eat less and lose weight.
Being overweight and obesity are associated with an increased risk of premature death. Excess weight exacerbates heart disease risk factors and is a risk factor for dying from heart-related illness.
Higher body mass is also associated with an elevated risk of dying from COVID-19.
However, the study authors wrote that it might not be true that semaglutide lowers the risk of premature death—from all causes, heart disease and COVID-19—simply by helping people lose weight.
They wrote that the differences they saw in the semaglutide group—compared to the placebo group—were more than would be expected based purely on changes that would occur from weight loss.
So, the mechanism by which people taking semaglutide seem to have been less likely to die during the trial remains unknown, the paper stated.
The study was based on data from a randomized controlled trial called Semaglutide Effects on Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Overweight or Obesity, part of Novo Nordisk's SELECT trials.
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Reference
Scirica, B. M., Lincoff, A. M., Lingvay, I., Bogdanski, P., Buscemi, S., Colhoun, H., Craciun, A.-E., Ezhov, M., Hardt-Lindberg, S., Kleist Jeppesen, O., Matos, A. L. S. A., Node, K., Schiele, F., Toplak, H., van Beek, A., Weeke, P. E., Wiviott, S. D., Deanfield, J., & Ryan, D. (2024). The Effect of Semaglutide on Mortality and COVID-19–Related Deaths: An Analysis From the SELECT Trial. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2024.08.007
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