CNN
—
Semaglutide, a diabetes and weight loss drug, has shown significant symptom relief and improved quality of life in patients with obesity and most commonly heart failure in clinical trials. This could expand the use of an already ubiquitous drug beyond diabetes and weight loss and offer new treatments. When there are few options available.
A study of 529 patients, funded by the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, found that weekly doses of 2.4 milligrams of semaglutide, marketed as Wegobee for weight loss, reduced scores out of 100 used to assess symptoms. It was found that there was a 17-point improvement on the scale of A condition known as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. By comparison, participants who received placebo experienced a 9-point improvement.of study It was published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In effect, this difference means that Wegovy has helped heart failure patients reduce shortness of breath, fatigue, difficulty moving, and swelling, improving exercise function and quality of life. These are all part of a scale known as “heart failure.” Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire Clinical summary scores were provided by Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod, cardiologist at St. Luke’s Health System, who led the trial.
Ahead of the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Amsterdam, where the results will be announced, Kosivolod said, “This is the largest treatment ever confirmed for that endpoint using any drug in this patient population. It’s an effect,” he told CNN.
In a statement about the trial results, Novo Nordisk said 64 million people worldwide suffer from heart failure. A condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.
Saved ejection fraction means The heart can pump normally, but is too stiff to fill properly. According to Kosiborod and coauthors, this type of heart failure accounts for more than half of all cases in the United States, and its prevalence is increasing.
He noted that 80% of this type of heart failure patient in the United States is obese or characterized as overweight. Another goal of the study was weight loss, and the drug succeeded there as well. Over the 1-year study period, participants who received semaglutide lost about 13% of their body weight, compared with 2.6% for those who received a placebo.
Until recently, diuretics, also known as water pills, were the main treatment option for patients with this type of heart failure, Kosivolod said. They can increase urination and reduce the amount of water in the body, temporarily relieving symptoms, but “woefully inadequate,” he explained.
Another class of drugs known as SGLT2 inhibitors, also used in type 2 diabetes, have been shown to reduce the risk of heart failure hospitalization, but “for most people, that’s not enough,” Kosiborod said. said. He said the improvement was “relatively gradual.”
The semaglutide trial assessed motor function using a metric known as the 6-minute walk test. By the end of the trial, it was found that the drug allowed participants to walk 20 meters farther than those who received a placebo.
Although there were fewer serious safety events in this drug group than in the placebo group, more patients took semaglutide, primarily because of gastrointestinal disturbances, known side effects of this class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists. stopped taking
In early August, Novo Nordisk announced that Wegobee reduced the risk of heart attack, stroke, or heart-related death by 20% in people with cardiovascular disease and obesity, a result that further encouraged the use of the drug expected to be The company was already unable to keep up with demand and had to restrict access to some low-dose drugs to meet established patient supply needs.
Wegovy and its sister drug type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s similar drug Mounjaro have been used for decades as weakly effective drugs with dangerous safety issues. As a result, it has transformed the way doctors approach drug weight loss.
They are also changing the way researchers think about obesity, and the findings on heart failure are contributing to that paradigm shift, Kosiborod said.
“It’s clear that we can’t continue to treat obesity as something that just happened to these patients,” he says. “It’s likely the underlying cause of the complication and should be treated as such.”
But he said the drug may help in ways other than weight loss, such as reducing inflammation and congestion.
As a doctor who treats patients, Dr. Kosivolod said he was “very happy” with the results. Because what I can say right now is that there is pretty conclusive evidence that prescribing this drug will make you feel better and help you do more. will make an impact. ”
