FDA Approves Popular Weight Loss Drug for Heart Disease Prevention
Weight loss drug Wegovy is now FDA-approved as a treatment to lower cardiovascular disease risk in some people.
The medication was previously only FDA-approved for weight loss, but can now be marketed for cardiovascular disease.
Wegovy lowered the risk of heart events by 20% in people with a history of cardiovascular disease, a study found.
Weight loss drug Wegovy has received plenty of attention for helping users lose weight. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the medication to be used (and marketed) for another purpose: as a treatment for lowering cardiovascular disease risk.
The FDA announced on Friday that Wegovy can be used to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, and stroke in adults with cardiovascular disease who have either obesity or overweight. It’s designed to be used along with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity.
“Wegovy is now the first weight loss medication to also be approved to help prevent life-threatening cardiovascular events in adults with cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight,” John Sharretts, M.D., director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. “This patient population has a higher risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, and stroke. Providing a treatment option that is proven to lower this cardiovascular risk is a major advance for public health.”
Around 5.5% of American adults have cardiovascular disease and 70% of Americans are classified as having overweight or obesity, making this a treatment that can potentially impact a portion of the population. But how does taking Wegovy for heart disease work—and will this influence the cost of the medication? Doctors explain.
How does Wegovy work?
Wegovy is an injectable weight loss medication that contains 2.4 milligrams of semaglutide. It’s usually taken weekly. Until last week, Wegovy was only FDA-approved as a weight loss medication. It contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic, which is FDA-approved to help manage blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Wegovy (and Ozempic) is in a class of medications called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists. Wegovy mimics the GLP-1 hormone that’s released in the gastrointestinal tract when you eat, explains Jamie Alan, Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University. That encourages the body to produce more insulin, which reduces blood sugar. It can also signal to the brain to reduce appetite and make you feel full, as well as slow transit of food through your gut, Alan says.
How may Wegovy reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease?
Previous research funded by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Wegovy and Ozempic, found that semaglutide lowered the risk of people with cardiovascular disease from having another event by 20%. That double-blind, placebo-controlled trial featured more than 17,600 adults aged 45 and older who had overweight and obesity who were either given weekly shots of Wegovy or a placebo.
The researchers concluded that Wegovy was “superior” to a placebo in lowering the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, stroke, and heart attack.
The reason for this is still being researched, but “it’s all connected,” says Cheng-Han Chen, M.D., Ph.D., an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA.
“Wegovy helps with a lot of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” he explains. “That includes excess weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar control.” Dr. Chen points out that having overweight or obesity is linked with high blood pressure and is also a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. Lowering excess weight can, by default, help lower those risks, he says. “Carrying around less weight also helps with systemic inflammation,” Dr. Chen adds.
“It’s somewhat common” for medications to be used to treat a range of health conditions like this, Alan says. Finasteride, for example, is used to treat hair loss in men at low doses, and at higher doses to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlargement of the prostate that can cause problems using the bathroom. Paroxetine is a medication that’s used to treat depression, as well as hot flashes related to menopause.
Can this help people who don’t have obesity or overweight?
It’s important to point out that Wegovy is now approved for those who already have cardiovascular disease and who have obesity or overweight. It’s unclear at this point if the medication will help treat cardiovascular disease if someone doesn’t have those conditions.
“We can’t say at this point,” Dr. Chen says. “It hasn’t been studied.”
If you have cardiovascular disease but don’t have overweight or obesity, Dr. Chen says it’s best to talk to your doctor about other treatment methods.
Will Wegovy be covered by insurance now?
Given that the FDA approval just happened, it’s hard to say for sure how it will influence health insurance coverage. However, “health insurance usually takes cues from FDA approval—they don’t have to, but they usually do,” Dr. Chen speculates. As a result, he thinks that insurance companies will likely add coverage for patients who use Wegovy for cardiovascular disease as well.
While Wegovy has been in shortage for months, it’s currently listed as available by the FDA.
If you’re interested in taking Wegovy for cardiovascular health, Dr. Chen says it’s important to have a conversation with your doctor about what this means for your health and your expectations for taking the medication in the future. “This is intended to be taken long-term,” he says.
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