Bloomberg — The drug Novo Nordisk A/S’s Wegovy has reduced the number of deaths and illnesses caused by Covid-19 in an extensive study conducted during the pandemic, once again demonstrating the benefits of this successful injectable, which transcend weight loss.
The results, published this Friday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (American College of Cardiology), provide a more comprehensive analysis of Novo’s largest trial of Wegovy, called Select.
When the pandemic broke out, this research was already recruiting more than 17,600 people with obesitywhich is now known as a risk factor for severe Covid-19, and heart disease.
Read more: Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy approved in China for weight loss
As insurers and policymakers question the prices of weight-loss treatments, Novo and Eli Lilly & Co (LLY), maker of the competing drug Zepbound, are rushing to show that their expensive drugs have broad benefits that justify coverage by insurers and public health plans.
In 2023, the results of the Select study revealed that the Patients taking Wegovy were 20% less likely of suffering a heart attack or stroke than those who received a placebo, which opened the way to greater coverage by insurance companies.
It is not entirely clear how the drug may have helped Covid-19 patients.
This research “highlights the relationship between obesity and the severity of Covid-19 disease,” he said. Barry Popkin, professor of nutrition at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was not involved in the study. “We don’t know if this is related to the lower lung capacity of obese individuals or to other pathways such as reduced inflammation.”
When Covid-19 appeared, no one suspected that Wegovy, made with the active ingredient semaglutide, would reduce deaths from the virus that is causing havoc around the world, according to Donna Ryanprofessor emeritus at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who helped write the study.
Read more: Oprah promotes Zepbound and Wegovy, but keeps her choice secret
Los Latest results underscore the drug’s far-reaching effects on metabolism and inflammationimportant factors in the body’s response to infections and other types of diseases.
“It’s not just about weight loss, it’s not just about diabetes,” said Ryan, who served on Novo’s steering committee for the Select trial and has consulted for other pharmaceutical companies. The drug’s effect is “much broader.”
Lilly ha started exploring the anti-inflammatory effects of Zepbound, planning studies in conditions such as psoriasis. The market for drugs that control the damage caused by inflammation – worth about $100 billion this year – is one of the largest in the world.
Obesity and Covid-19
The link between body weight and Covid-19 became apparent early in the pandemic. Obese people diagnosed with Covid-19 were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized, 74% more likely to need an intensive care unit and 48% more likely to die than non-obese people, according to a 2020 study led by Popkin.
In the first eight months of the pandemic, nearly 30% of Covid-19 hospitalizations were in patients who were also obese, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read more: Wegovy causes a stir for its potential use against alcoholism
Around the 2.6% of study participants Select who took Wegovy suffered serious events related to Covid-19 or died, andCompared to 3.1% of those receiving placebo.
The data did not show that Wegovy prevents Covid-19 infections. About a quarter of trial participants reported Covid-19 infections, with similar rates among those taking Wegovy and those receiving placebo.
The reduction in Covid-19 deaths between Those taking Wegovy also contributed to reducing overall mortality rates in this group compared with patients taking placebo, the researchers said. Novo scientists are still analyzing the data for information on the drug’s effects.
The results “underscore the transformative potential of targeting obesity” to protect against a broad spectrum of health threats, he said in a statement. Harlan Krumholzprofessor at Yale School of Medicine.
Read more on Bloomberg.com
