Patients taking semaglutide injections are less likely to die of any cause, including from cardiovascular disease and infections like COVID-19, an international study led by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, finds. The randomized, controlled SELECT Trial, funded by Novo Nordisk, studied the effect of once-weekly semaglutide shots versus placebo on mortality in over 17,000 participants with heart disease and overweight or obesity between October 2018 through March 2023. Overall death rates in the group taking semaglutide were 19% lower compared to placebo.
Deaths from cardiovascular disease were 15% lower, and deaths from other reasons were 23% lower. Results were presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2024 and simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology . "These results are surprising.
The trial started before COVID-19, and we never anticipated a global respiratory pandemic. We quickly recognized there was important data to be collected," said corresponding author Benjamin M. Scirica, MD MPH, director of quality initiatives at Brigham and Women's Hospital's Cardiovascular Division and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
"It is rare for a cardio-metabolic drug to modify non-cardiovascular outcomes. The fact that semaglutide reduced non-cardiovascular death, and in particular COVID-19-related deaths, was surprising. It opens up new avenu.