Health miracle drug Wegovy
Weight loss injection should also help with heart failure
Status: 25.08.2023 | Reading time: 2 minutes
The weight loss syringe Wegovy has been available in Germany for four weeks
Quelle: Getty Images/J Studios
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The hype about the weight loss injection doesn’t stop: It slows down diabetes, obesity and even addictions. However, according to the manufacturer, the drug is not a pure “lifestyle drug”. Researchers have now discovered another healing effect.
According to a study, the weight loss syringe Wegovy from the Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk can alleviate symptoms of heart failure in overweight people. After a year of treatment with Wegovy’s active substance semaglutid, the health of the test subjects, measured on a questionnaire-based 100-point scale, improved by 16.6 points, the Danish pharmaceutical company announced on Friday.
A weekly dose of the drug reduced patients’ symptoms, which can include shortness of breath, fatigue and an irregular heartbeat. In the comparison group with a placebo agent, it was only 8.7 points. This has greatly reduced the symptoms associated with heart failure.
Between March 2021 and March 2022, the Novo Nordisk study examined 529 patients with an average age of 69 years. More than half of them were women, two-thirds were severely overweight. Patients who received Wegovy experienced significant improvement in heart failure symptoms and associated physical limitations. Compared to the patients who received a placebo, they also had lower blood pressure and a decrease in inflammation scores, two important markers of heart health.
What you need to know about the weight loss injection
People who are obese usually have a higher risk of developing heart failure. In Germany, almost four million people suffer from this kind of cardiac insufficiency – that is, about every twentieth person. The disease is most common in older people and can be fatal.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, was relatively small at 529 patients. A five-year study of around 17,600 adults recently published by Novo Nordisk found that overweight people had a reduced risk of stroke and heart attack.
The Danish company is looking forward to the results of a study on the effectiveness of Wegovy in heart failure patients with type 2 diabetes, expected in the fourth quarter, according to Martin Lange, head of development at Novo Nordisk. If these are positive, the drug manufacturer plans to extend the approval to the treatment of heart failure in obesity.
With the study results, Novo Nordisk emphasizes the health-promoting effect of the slimming product in order to get rid of the image of a lifestyle drug. So far, the statutory health insurance has not covered the monthly costs of a good 300 euros for the remedy, which is also available in Germany. Novartis and AstraZeneca also have new heart failure drugs in the pipeline.
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