On average, they lost 10.2% of their body weight
Researchers have found that weight loss jabs could reduce the risk of heart attacks, strokes or heart failure in obese people.
The study of Wegovy has also shown that people maintain significant weight loss for at least four years, with fewer serious adverse events than those given placebo “dummy” treatment.
According to doctors, the findings will add pressure on UK health authorities, which currently limit treatment to just two years.
On average, they lost 10.2% of their body weight and 7.7cm from their waist size after four years.
Significantly, cardiovascular benefits were seen even in patients who only had mild obesity or lost only modest amounts of weight, according to the research.
This indicates that treatment could have effects beyond reducing unhealthy body fat.
The five-year study looked at whether the drug – sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Rybelsus – could reduce the risk of heart attacks or stroke in obese people without diabetes.
Dr Simon Cork, senior lecturer in physiology at Anglia Ruskin University, said:
“Importantly one of the decisions by the UK health service to limit (treatment) to two years was because of questionable long-term cost-effectiveness.
“That this data demonstrates improved cardiovascular and metabolic parameters continuing to four years may go some way to negating that argument.
“This study also neatly demonstrates that obesity is a lifelong condition and the decision by NICE to limit prescription to two years does a disservice to patients suffering with obesity.”
The trial involved 17,604 adults with obesity or who were overweight from 41 countries.
None of them had diabetes, but all had previously had a heart attack, stroke or peripheral artery disease.
Over the first two years of the study, the proportion of people who were obese fell sharply from 71% to 43% in the group given Wegovy.
But in those given placebo injections, the rate slightly dropped, from 72% to 68%.
After three years of treatment, participants had a 20% lower risk of a heart attack, stroke or dying from cardiovascular disease, according to analysis released in 2023.
The study showed that serious adverse events were less common in those given the drug than those given placebo.
That was largely because people taking Wegovy were less likely to have cardiac disorders.
In South Asian communities, cardiovascular health issues are one of the biggest killers and Dr Amir Khan highlighted the study’s findings, saying it was “positive news in our fight against cardiovascular disease”.
On Good Morning Britain, he said:
“Those that were given the drug had a 20% reduced risk of a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular disease, that’s regardless of how much weight they lost.
“That goes to show that this drug does more than just cause weight loss and manage blood sugars sugar, it could reduce inflammation, it could reduce blood pressure.
“Those are the mechanisms of action by which we think it reduces those diseases we’ve listed there.”
However, Dr Khan said weight loss jabs are not the only way to deal with health problems.
He told Ed Balls: “But what I will say Ed, and this is what I say to all my patients, if we do want to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, or any disease in all of us really, we should all be doing things like better nutrition focused on core foods; good, enjoyable, regular movement; good quality sleep; time in nature; and of course stopping smoking and reducing our alcohol intake, that is better than any drug I think.”
Dr Khan explained that since it was revealed that Ozempic helped with weight loss, the drug has been much harder for people to get a hold of.
He added: “What I will say, and this is really important, since it’s been licenced for weight loss it’s been really really difficult for people with type two diabetes to get a hold of it.
“A lot of my patients struggle to get hold of it and that has resulted in poorer blood sugar control for them, so we need to focus on the people who need it most.”
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