Wile the rest of the world is going mad about the anti-obesity drug semaglutide for weight loss, researchers are quietly getting on with pioneering its use in heart disease. Loss of weight can have a profound effect on the heart.

Semaglutide also helps to lower blood sugar levels after a meal.

It was initially prescribed for adults with type 2 diabetes and it’s the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic.

We already know semaglutide injections may help to prevent heart attacks in overweight people, but that protective effect might also extend to people with heart failure, says a new study led by Professor John Deanfield of University College London.

The researchers looked at data from 4,286 people – out of a total of 17,605 from the landmark SELECT (Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes) trial.

They were randomly assigned either semaglutide or a placebo and were followed for an average of more than three years.

The results are impressive. They found that semaglutide was linked to a 28% reduction in major adverse cardiac events compared to placebo, as well as a 24% reduction in cardiovascular deaths for people with heart failure, and a 19% reduction in deaths from any cause.

Professor Deanfield said: “Our previous SELECT analysis showed the benefits of semaglutide for people with cardiovascular disease who had obesity or were overweight.

“This new study finds that, within this group, people with heart failure did just as well as people without in terms of the outcomes we measured. This is important as there were concerns that semaglutide might be harmful for people with a type of heart failure known as ‘reduced ejection fraction’, where the heart pumps less blood around the body. Our findings show that the benefit of semaglutide was similar regardless of heart failure type.”

How semaglutide helps the heart function is unknown, but it may include the drug’s positive impacts on blood sugar, blood pressure, and inflammation, as well as direct effects on the heart muscle and blood vessels.

The researchers also said that the reduction in all-cause mortality in all the heart failure groups “suggests the potential for other, as yet unknown, benefits”.

It seems these positives for patients of semaglutide are irrespective of the type of heart failure, age, sex, BMI, and extent of their illness.

And please note – serious side effects were reported more frequently in people who took the placebo than the semaglutide group.