(NewsNation) — New research shows patients taking Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy maintained weight loss after four years and had a reduced risk of heart disease regardless of their weight.
The findings come from two new analyses of Novo Nordisk’s SELECT trial, which included more than 17,600 adults from over 40 countries.
In the first, researchers found that those who took semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, sustained an average of 10% weight loss and roughly 3 inches from their waistline after four years.
The results are noteworthy because they show the impact of the drug over an extended length of time, but also its effectiveness across different demographic groups. The study, published in the journal Nature, found “meaningful weight loss” across both sexes and all races, body sizes and regions.
“This degree of weight loss in such a large and diverse population suggests that it may be possible to impact the public health burden of multiple obesity-related illnesses,” said Professor Donna Ryan, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana, who led the study.
The second new analysis of trial data offered further evidence that semaglutide may help with more than just weight loss.
Participants saw benefits to their cardiovascular health, regardless of their starting weight or how much they lost, according to researchers at University College London.
A previous study had shown that Wegovy cut the risk of serious heart problems but it wasn’t clear how much that was driven by the weight loss itself or some other benefit from the drug.
“Our findings show that the magnitude of this treatment effect with semaglutide is independent of the amount of weight lost, suggesting that the drug has other actions which lower cardiovascular risk beyond reducing unhealthy body fat,” said Professor John Deanfield, who led the team at University College London.
The two new studies could boost Novo Nordisk’s case for insurers and governments to cover the cost of new highly popular weight loss drugs. Currently, Wegovy ranges from $200 to almost $2,000 a month in the 10 countries it has been launched, according to Reuters.
In March, Wegovy became the first weight loss drug to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for reducing the risk of heart disease.
A recent analysis by health policy nonprofit KFF found that among the 13.7 million people on Medicare diagnosed with obesity, roughly 1 in 4, also have diagnoses of cardiovascular disease, meaning they could potentially access Wegovy.