https://mailchi.mp/27e58978fc54/the-weekly-gist-august-11-2023?e=d1e747d2d8

On Tuesday, Novo Nordisk released the headline results of a large clinical trial demonstrating that its popular GLP-1 inhibitor Wegovy reduced the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths by 20 percent. The SELECT trial enrolled roughly 17,600 non-diabetic adults aged 45 and older who were overweight or obese with established cardiovascular disease. It compared people in this population treated with the drug to those given a placebo, and tracked them for up to five years. The drugmaker said it plans to release the full trial results at a conference later this year. These results are similar to a previous study that found Wegovy sister drug Ozempic, also made by Novo Nordisk, reduced the risk of adverse cardiac events by 26 percent in adults with type 2 diabetes.

The Gist: The cardioprotective effects demonstrated in this study far exceeded researchers’ expectations. Though concerns still abound about the high costs of Wegovy (nearly $1,350 per month) and similar drugs, these results will certainly put pressure on Medicare and other insurers to provide coverage. 

Questions remain around how the drug actually improves cardiovascular outcomes, and whether patients with cardiac disease who are not overweight or obese might also benefit from taking it.

Despite the fact that the data are still preliminary, the argument that obesity medications are solely “lifestyle” or “vanity drugs”—which some insurers and employers have been using to deny coverage—will now be much harder to defend.