The trial was sponsored by Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy. Semaglutide was initially developed by the corporate as a medicine to deal with sort 2 diabetes. (It has been accredited by the US Food and Drug Administration as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight administration, though Ozempic can be prescribed off-label for weight reduction.)

People with sort 2 diabetes don’t make sufficient insulin or are proof against it. Semaglutide mimics the GLP-1 hormone, which is produced within the intestine and regulates blood sugar by prompting the physique to make insulin. This hormone additionally interacts with the mind to control urge for food, and the drug model results in weight reduction by signaling a sense of fullness so folks eat much less.

In addition to taking a look at how the drug could scale back coronary heart failure in folks with weight problems, Novo Nordisk is researching whether or not it presents extra common cardiovascular advantages. Last month, the corporate introduced that weekly injections of semaglutide over a five-year interval reduced the risk of stroke and heart attack by 20 percent in additional than 17,000 folks with weight problems and a historical past of heart problems. The firm hasn’t printed detailed outcomes from that trial but, however it’s anticipated to disclose them at a convention later this yr.

“That is really exciting,” says Martha Gulati, director of preventive cardiology within the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Because being chubby or overweight additionally will increase the danger of stroke and coronary heart assault, she expects sufferers who shed extra pounds to have fewer of those occasions.

But Gulati says “that big of a reduction in cardiovascular events tells me there’s something else going on.” She says it’s potential that semaglutide is having an anti-inflammatory impact, for instance. “I don’t think we entirely know how the drug works right now,” she says.

There’s additionally early proof to indicate that Ozempic and Wegovy could dampen alcohol cravings. An unbiased examine printed in June by researchers in Sweden discovered that giving the drug to alcohol-dependent rats reduced their alcohol consumption by 50 percent.

Nathan Wong, director of the Heart Disease Prevention Program on the University of California at Irvine School of Medicine, says the guts failure outcomes, mixed with Novo’s latest announcement, are promising. “This expands the potential usefulness of this medication,” he says.

The newest findings construct on trial results published in 2021, which discovered that for chubby or overweight folks, the drug decreased physique weight by a mean of 14.9 p.c and led to reductions in sure cardiovascular threat elements, corresponding to blood stress and the extent of lipids, or fatty compounds within the blood.

Based on that 2021 paper, Wong and his colleagues used statistical modeling to estimate what number of Americans could profit from semaglutide. His examine, published in August, concluded that if all 93 million US adults who’re chubby and overweight had been prescribed the drug, over it might lead to 43 million fewer folks with weight problems, and over 10 years, stop as much as 1.5 million coronary heart assaults, strokes, and different antagonistic cardiovascular occasions.

Currently, statins are probably the most extensively used drugs to cut back the danger of coronary heart assault and stroke. They work by reducing LDL, or “bad,” ldl cholesterol and have been proven to slash cardiovascular risks. Semaglutide could provide extra advantages for folks already taking statins.

Broader coronary heart advantages might imply extra folks will wish to take Ozempic and Wegovy. But for that to occur, Wong says, the medicine will have to be extra accessible. Without insurance coverage, Ozempic’s list price is $935 and Wegovy’s is $1,350 for a month-to-month prescription within the US. (A model for heart problems might include a unique price ticket and model title.) Even with insurance coverage, some folks could not be capable to afford copays, and provides of the drug are presently restricted due to excessive demand.

Novo Nordisk plans to hunt regulatory approval within the US and Europe for extra makes use of of semaglutide. Once a drug is already available on the market, the approval course of for extra indications is normally speedier, because the drug has already been proven to be protected. If it’s granted, this blockbuster drug might grow to be its personal sequel.