CNN: Weight-Loss Drug Wegovy Offers Benefits for People with Diabetes and Common Form of Heart Failure, Study Finds

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are common in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and characterized by a high burden of symptoms and functional impairment. There are currently no approved therapies that specifically target obesity-related heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in people with type 2 diabetes.

The popular weight loss drug Wegovy seems to provide more health benefits for people who have diabetes and a common kind of heart failure than just helping take off the pounds, according to the results from the STEP HFpEF DM trial. 

The study, published Saturday in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed how the drug helped people with Type 2 diabetes who also had one of the most common kind of heart failure, obesity-related heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This condition happens when the heart pumps regularly but is too stiff to fill properly.

Current treatment for this condition involves lifestyle changes and heart medications, but there are no therapies specifically approved to treat this particular condition, and the number of people who have it has been growing significantly, the study authors said.

“I think the answer from the trial clearly suggests that, while weight loss is likely an important factor, it cannot explain everything,” said Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod, lead study investigator and cardiologist at  Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute. 

If people with diabetes lost 40% less weight on the drug than similar heart patients without diabetes, one may expect to see 40% less benefit, he said, but the positive benefits were actually about the same.

“I think that’s incredibly exciting because first of all, these patients are really difficult to treat, and there are a lot more of them every day,” Kosiborod said. “And until recently, we had very little to offer them, so if we know it actually modifies the disease process, we have something really effective – and by the way, really well-tolerated as well – and that’s of course great news for patients and great news for doctors taking care of patients.”

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