In a study conducted on women and men with heart failure compared to a placebo, and presented at the American Diabetes Association’s 2024 research conference and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Novo Nordisk’s obesity medication Wegovy (semaglutide) brought about superior weight loss among women compared to men.
These results are from the STEP-HFpEF program of Novo, which included a total of 1,145 patients with obesity-related HFrEF and HFpEF combined in two trials. The studies were conducted mainly to establish outcomes arising from the implementation of a 2.4 mg dose of semaglutide on health status in patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) heart failure, as measured by the KCCQ-CSS and weight loss.
The cross-sectional design of the study showed that nearly 54% of the study sample were women who, at baseline, had significantly higher BMI, fasting CRP, and LVEF. The baseline data also revealed that initial signs of heart failure were worse in women compared to men.
The results of this study also showed that semaglutide led to a reduction in body weight in both male and female clients after 52 weeks of consumption, with male clients shedding an average of 10.2 percent of their body weight, while women lost 12 percent, indicating that women lost more weight.
Even in the analyzed trials that employed a placebo comparator, semaglutide led to significantly greater weight change: women in the trials achieved a mean weight loss of 9.6%, compared to 7.2% in men. This gender effect was statistically significant, with the level of significance being p = 0.006 for the interaction.
As for the cardiovascular outcomes, the KCCQ-CSS improvement was similar for both sexes, with an improvement of 7.6 points in women and 7.5 points in men. Participants receiving semaglutide also had a significant increase in the six-minute walk distance, with the mean change being similar between the sexes.
Semaglutide belongs to the class of glucose-like peptide receptor agonists, which stimulate the pancreas to secrete insulin in response to increased blood sugar levels. It is approved for use in the management of type 2 diabetes under the brand name Ozempic and chronic weight management as Wegovy. Recently, Novo Nordisk also received an additional indication for Wegovy for the reduction of cardiovascular events, including both nonfatal and fatal outcomes, in the overweight and obese adult population with cardiovascular disease.
Evoltra has also presented semaglutide as having therapeutic potential in kidney disease, whereby the Phase III FLOW trial showed that the drug reduced death from any cause by 20% among type 2 diabetic kidney disease patients.
