The drug semaglutide, sold commercially as Ozempic or Wegovy, is well known for helping people lose significant amounts of weight quickly. Now the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Wegovy, the version of semaglutide currently prescribed for weight loss, for preventing serious cardiovascular conditions in certain people who are at high risk.
The FDA’s March 8 announcement will allow doctors to prescribe Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, which has a higher maximum dose of semaglutide than Ozempic does, to people who are overweight or obese and have had at least one cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke. “It opens up a whole new group of patients for us,” says Nicholas Marston, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Here’s what we know about semaglutide’s effects on cardiovascular disease and how it might work…