More than one million people get weight loss drugs to prevent heart attacks

More than a million people with heart disease can be prescribed weight loss jabs on the NHS to prevent them from having a heart attack or stroke.

Sold under the brand name Wegovy and made by Novo Nordisk, the weekly jab is a type of drug called a GLP-1 receptor agonist. It works by mimicking natural hormones that regulate blood sugar, appetite and digestion.

The drug can be prescribed to lower blood sugar in people living with type 2 diabetes, but it can also help people lose weight and has been shown to work directly on the heart and blood vessels.

Now the NHS spending watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), has given the green light to give semaglutide to overweight and obese patients living with heart and circulatory conditions.

It is estimated that 1.2 million people in the UK could benefit.

Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said the move was a “genuine win-win” that would improve patients’ quality of life.

“We now have drugs that not only reduce heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral artery disease, but also simultaneously lead to meaningful weight loss – which in turn reduces the risk of many weight-related conditions,” said Prof. Sattar.

“Given that so many people live with cardiovascular disease and struggle with excess weight, it is no longer enough to focus solely on lipids and blood pressure. We also need to address weight directly if we want to deliver the best possible results for our patients,” he added.

According to new guidelines, the weight loss jab can be used by patients with a body mass index (BMI) score of 27 or more in addition to other drugs, such as statins, and with a reduced calorie diet and increased exercise to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Although Semaglutide is already available on the NHS in England as a treatment option for people with obesity, the new guidelines mean more people can take the drug in the health service.

In the UK there are around 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks and 100,000 people have a stroke each year – but being overweight can increase the risk.

Excess body fat can cause fatty material to accumulate in the arteries and if the arteries that carry blood to the heart are damaged and clogged, it can lead to a heart attack, according to the British Heart Foundation.

Being overweight can also increase your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes – all of which are risk factors for heart disease.

Nice said that evidence from clinical trials shows that the weight loss jab reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death even before patients lose weight.

There was a 20 percent reduction in the risk of a major cardiac event among the 17,604 people who took part in the study.

Nice said its evaluation showed the treatment was “cost effective” for NHS use and Health Service officials indicated it could be available “within months”.

“Evidence from clinical trials is compelling. It shows that people taking semaglutide together with their heart medication are significantly less likely to have another heart attack or stroke,” Helen Knight, director of drug evaluation in Nice.

Helen Williams, national clinical director for cardiovascular disease prevention at NHS England, added: “For more than a million people at risk of heart attack and stroke, this treatment on the NHS could be life-changing – offering powerful new ways to protect their heart and improve their health.

Health Minister Sharon Hodgson said the drug was a “game changer” when it came to tackling obesity and extending it to people with cardiovascular disease “would be a life saver.”

Dr. Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The so-called ‘weight loss drugs’ like semaglutide have proven useful beyond reducing the number on the scale – they are now considered an important drug to prevent deadly heart attacks and strokes.

“Today’s guidance will certainly help save lives as cardiovascular disease is still one of the biggest killers in the country.”

Sebnem Avsar Tuna, general manager for Novo Nordisk UK, said the move was an “important step”, adding: “It means doctors in the UK now have access to the next treatment that Nice has found to be cost-effective, the first and only GLP-1 receptor agonist proven to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death in this high-risk population.