NHS England to offer weight-loss drugs to 1.2m people to reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes | Weight-loss drugs

The NHS in England is to offer more than a million people weight loss drugs to reduce their risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Semaglutide (Wegovy) is already available in health services for some people with obesity, and also offered under the brand name Ozempic to treat type 2 diabetes.

Now people who are not obese but overweight and at risk of serious cardiovascular events will also be eligible for weekly shots, after a watchdog gave the green light.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said people with a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or more and who have had a heart attack, stroke or serious circulation problems in the legs should be offered semaglutide to prevent life-threatening cardiovascular events.

NHS England said around 1.2 million people could benefit.

Semaglutide is best known as a weight loss drug. But the Nice recommendation specifically concerns the prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

The weekly injections will be an additional treatment, offered on top of medicines people already take, such as statins, and alongside a low-calorie diet and increased physical activity for people at high risk of a new serious event.

Clinical trials have shown that semaglutide reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular death.

This benefit was seen before significant weight loss, suggesting that the drug works directly on the heart and blood vessels, not just through weight loss, Nice said.

The Guardian reported last year how the largest study of its kind, led by University College London (UCL), found that semaglutide reduced the risk of heart attack or stroke, regardless of how many pounds you lost.

The findings, published in the Lancet, suggest that the drugs may have broader benefits for patients beyond weight loss, and should therefore not be limited to the most obese patients.

A previous analysis found that semaglutide reduced the risk of major cardiac events by 20%. In October, researchers said they had now found that the benefit was apparent regardless of how much weight was lost while taking the drug.

On Wednesday, Helen Knight, director of drug evaluation at Nice, said the evidence from the UCL study was “compelling”. It showed that people taking semaglutide with existing heart medications were “significantly less likely” to have another heart attack or stroke, she added.

“We know that people who have already had a heart attack or stroke live in real fear that it could happen again. Today’s decision gives thousands of people in this situation an extra layer of protection, on top of the medications they already take.

“Our role is to help practitioners provide the best care to people while ensuring value for the taxpayer, and we are confident that this rigorous and transparent guidance strikes the right balance between clinical effectiveness and the best use of limited NHS resources.

The green light from Nice is an orientation project. But NHS England officials said the new group of people eligible for semaglutide could access the drug “within months”.

Helen Williams, NHS England clinical director for cardiovascular disease prevention, said: “For more than a million people at high risk of heart attack and stroke, this NHS treatment could be life-changing – offering a powerful new way to protect their hearts and improve their health.

“We know that people who have already had a heart attack or stroke are at much higher risk of having another. Used in combination with a healthy diet and regular physical activity, semaglutide could help prevent thousands of future major cardiovascular events and give many people the chance to live longer, healthier lives.”

Sharon Hodgson, the health minister, said the weight loss drugs were a “game changer” and giving them to people at risk of heart attacks and strokes would be a “lifeline”.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director of the British Heart Foundation, said semaglutide had proven benefits “beyond reducing the number on the scale” and that weight loss drugs were now considered “important medicines” to prevent cardiovascular events.

Professor Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: “This is very good news and follows directly from high-quality trial evidence.

“We now have medications that not only reduce heart attacks, strokes and peripheral artery disease, but also simultaneously cause significant weight loss, reducing the risk of many weight-related conditions. These treatments also significantly improve patients’ quality of life, making it a true win-win.”

Riyaz Patel, professor of cardiology at UCL, welcomed the move but said questions arose over whether the NHS had the capacity to offer the drug to so many people.

“Overall, this is a really exciting development, for patients and doctors, that gives us another powerful tool to reduce cardiovascular disease.” [cardiovascular disease] risk.”