Weight loss drugs can reduce by half the risk of heart patients being hospitalised or dying early, according to the largest study of its kind.
The class of drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, have been found to offer “dramatic benefits” to heart patients, significantly cutting their risk of falling seriously ill or dying prematurely from any cause.
The discovery, revealed at the world’s largest heart conference in Madrid, means they could be given to millions of heart patients to help them stay out of hospital and live longer.
Weight loss drugs mimic the glucagon-like peptide (GLP) 1 hormone, which makes people feel full, and were initially developed to treat diabetes. In recent years evidence has emerged suggesting they could prove to be lifesaving across a range of conditions beyond obesity.
Now the results of new research presented at the European Society of Cardiology annual conference show weight loss drugs could reduce the risk of people with heart conditions being hospitalised or dying early by as much as 58%.
In the study, US researchers from Mass General Brigham, a nonprofit network of doctors and hospitals headquartered in Boston, analysed real-world data from more than 90,000 heart failure patients who were obese and had type 2 diabetes. All had heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), the most common form of the condition.
The results showed that those taking semaglutide were 42% less likely to end up in hospital or die prematurely, compared with a proxy for placebo. In the same study, tirzepatide cut the risk of hospitalisation for heart failure or death from any cause by 58%.
Globally, more than 60 million people have heart failure. Previous studies have suggested weight-loss drugs may improve heart failure symptoms, but their effect on important outcomes such as hospitalisation and death has never been evaluated in large populations until now.
The results presented in Madrid were simultaneously published in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.
The study’s author Dr Nils Krüger, of Brigham and Women’s hospital and a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, said: “Despite the widespread morbidity and mortality burden of HFpEF, current treatment options are limited. Both semaglutide and tirzepatide are well known for their effects on weight loss and blood sugar control, but our study suggests they may also offer substantial benefits to patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes by reducing adverse heart failure outcomes.
“Our findings show that in the future, GLP-1 targeting medications could provide a much-needed treatment option for patients with heart failure.”
The findings add to evidence that weight loss drugs may help tackle or prevent heart conditions. In May, a trial found that people taking semaglutide had a 20% lower risk of heart attack, stroke or death due to cardiovascular disease.
The University College London study also found semaglutide brought about cardiovascular benefits, regardless of someone’s starting weight or the amount of weight that they had lost.
Dr Carlos Aguiar, the vice-president of the European Society of Cardiology and a renowned expert in heart failure, who was not involved with the study, welcomed the findings.
“What this shows is that there is a benefit in using one of these two agents, semaglutide or tirzepatide, to reduce the risk of hospitalisation for heart failure or all-cause mortality,” he said.
“We thought that we actually might not really find a treatment that would work well for a significant proportion of these patients, and what’s been a good surprise is that these drugs that are working through weight loss, but possibly through other effects that go beyond weight loss, are potentially reducing the rates of hospitalisation and mortality in patients with heart failure.”
Aguiar, a cardiology consultant at Hospital Santa Cruz in Carnaxide, Portugal, said more evidence would be required before doctors could recommend rolling out weight loss drugs to heart patients specifically to cut their risk of adverse health outcomes, but the study results were “good news”.
Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, a consultant cardiologist and clinical director of the British Heart Foundation, said: “These data add to the growing body of evidence supporting a role for weight loss drugs for patients living with both heart failure and obesity, to reduce hospital admissions and death.
“It’s crucial that eligible heart failure patients have the opportunity to be considered for these therapies, alongside other evidence-based heart failure medicines.”