Prime Highlights:
- Semaglutide is predicted to thwart as many as 1.5 million of the largest cardiovascular events in the coming 10 years in patients with cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity, according to a new hypothesis.
- Semaglutide use across the globe is predicted to result in gigantic reductions in MACE, cardiovascular disease burden, and healthcare costs.
Key Facts:
- Semaglutide lowered major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) by 20% in a group of adults within a huge dataset from the SELECT trials.
- Wegovy (semaglutide), approved by the FDA, lowers cardiovascular risk in adults with known CV disease and overweight or obesity.
Key Background:
Semaglutide originally was known as a GLP-1 receptor agonist for type 2 diabetes treatment, and later as an antiobesity medication. Later clinical trials within the last two decades expanded its application as treatment for heart disease. The SELECT trial, double-blind, placebo-controlled, adult, randomised was to have more than 17,600 patients aged at least 45 years with stable cardiovascular disease and no history of diabetes. They were randomly put on semaglutide or on placebo and standard cardiovascular treatment. In over three years median follow-up, semaglutide reduced risk of MACE including cardiovascular mortality, heart attack, and stroke by 20%.
In the context of these encouraging findings, scientists developed a predictive model estimating the wider impact of initiating semaglutide therapy in affected populations. Based on the model, semaglutide 2.4 mg once-weekly therapy in adults with cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity was estimated to prevent 1.5 million MACE over a decade at universal treatment coverage and adherence, with potential to confer vast public health benefit.
In addition to health outcomes, cost was given tremendous importance by the model. Mean avoided cardiovascular events reduce the amount of hospitalization, surgery, pharmacologic treatment of long-term duration, and disabling therapy—definitely decreasing the cost of the healthcare system. The results are the positive evidence regarding reasonable recommendations for the inclusion of semaglutide as add-on therapy to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The trial is indicative of a pattern of medicine increasingly towards prevention at a larger scale. As chronic illness has been impacting global healthcare systems, treatment such as semaglutide started early in life can be used to maximize quality of life in general and achieve cost-benefit in the long term. Clinicians and policy makers will increasingly wish to offer this treatment more so that they can offer it and have more control for those at greater risk, and therefore it’s a valuable addition to current cardiovascular practice.
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