Weight loss jabs can reverse symptoms of heart disease in a breakthrough heralded as a “new era” for treatment.
A landmark global trial found semaglutide – the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic – found it was three times more effective than any existing treatments for heart failure.
Experts said the new class of weight loss drugs would transform the lives of half a million Britons living with the deadly disease.
Doctors believe it will lead to a “paradigm shift” in treatment, offering hope of a first cure for the condition. It is also some of the strongest evidence yet that obesity is the root cause of heart failure.
Dr Mikhail Kosiborod, a cardiologist and research vice president at Saint Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City, called it “one of the most promising developments in this field”.
He said: “We are talking about marked improvements in symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, inability to have physical exertion, swelling.
“These types of improvements can be very impactful for patients living with heart failure. This will be a paradigm shift in how clinicians approach the management of obesity in patients with heart failure.”
About one million people in the UK suffer from the disease, with half known as heart failure patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), where the heart pumps normally but is too stiff to fill properly.
The trial included 529 patients from 13 countries with a body mass index of more than 30, as well as heart failure symptoms and physical limitations.
Half were given a once-weekly 2.4mg jab for a year while the others were given a dummy drug in the randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial – seen as the gold standard of medical studies.
After 12 months, those using semaglutide saw substantial improvements in their conditions and quality of life due to a reversal of symptoms including shortness of breath and inflammation.
Dr Kosiborod told the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Amsterdam: “The benefits we observed with semaglutide versus placebo on these very important outcomes for patients with this type of heart failure – their symptoms and physical function – are the largest we have ever seen.”
The medication produced large improvements in symptoms, physical limitations and exercise function, reduced inflammation, and resulted in greater weight loss and fewer serious adverse events compared with the placebo.
Scientists said research was needed to establish if the drug was treating the mechanisms of the heart condition or the improvements were simply due to weight loss – or a combination of the two.