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Adults with heart disease will now be able to receive a prescription for Wegovy to reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke, even if they are not obese.
The FDA approved the drug for adults without diabetes after a large study showed it reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke by up to 28 percent.
The agency added that Wigovy, which uses the active ingredient semaglutide like its sister drug Ozempic, should be used in conjunction with a low-calorie diet and increased levels of physical activity in people who are overweight or obese.
Shares in Novo Nordisk, the drug’s owner, soared yesterday to $566 billion, making it the world’s 12th most valuable company.

The FDA today approved the drug for use in non-diabetic patients following clinical trials that showed it reduced risk by up to 28 percent.
Wegovy is already approved for use in overweight or obese patients for weight loss.
Ozempic, a lower dose of the same drug, is currently approved only for people with type 2 diabetes.
But many doctors are prescribing both drugs to other patients “off-label,” meaning they have not been approved by regulators, creating a shortage.
“Wegovy is the first weight-loss drug approved for use in the prevention of life-threatening cardiovascular events in obese or overweight adults with cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. John Sharetz of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. ” he said.
“This patient population is at high risk for cardiovascular death, heart attack, and stroke.
“Providing treatment options that are proven to reduce this cardiovascular risk is a major advance for public health.”
Today’s announcement means health insurance companies are now more likely to cover patients for the drug, which currently has an out-of-pocket price of more than $1,300 per week.
Brooke Pratt, CEO of Knowwell, which prescribes Wegovy to patients, declared the change “an exciting day for both heart patients and the clinicians who treat them.”
She said: “This approval is an important step in ensuring patients have access to potentially life-saving medicines.”
“We continue to support what the medical community has known all along: GLP-1 exists to treat serious chronic diseases, now cardiovascular disease in addition to diabetes and obesity.”
He added: “Given that GLP-1 continues to show such promising effects in many disease areas, it is reasonable to infer that insurance coverage will continue to improve for patients.”
In November, Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk released data from a trial of 17,604 heart disease patients showing that patients who took its drug had a lower risk of heart attack or stroke.
In this trial, patients were randomly assigned to receive either weekly injections of Wegovy or a placebo for 33 months.
During this period, 569 patients receiving the drug had a heart attack or stroke, compared with 701 in the placebo group.
The analysis showed that this reduced the overall risk for the group by about 20%.
The risk of heart disease was reduced by 28 percent, the risk of nonfatal stroke was reduced by 7 percent, and the risk of heart-related death was reduced by 15 percent.
It was initially thought that weight loss from drugs would lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease.
However, this trial found that the heart benefits began as early as six weeks, before significant weight loss began, and that the blood sugar control and inflammation reduction caused by the drug may reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. It also suggests that it also decreases.
Wegovy works by mimicking the hunger hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), making you feel full even when you haven’t eaten.
The most common side effects of this drug include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, and in some cases, hypoglycemia.
Approximately 18.2 million Americans have heart disease, and the majority are also obese or overweight.
Patients who are overweight or obese are at higher risk for complications because they are more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, or because the heart has to work harder to supply blood and nutrients to the body.
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