Overview

• In a JAMA-published analysis of more than 90,000 U.S. patients with HFpEF, obesity and type 2 diabetes, semaglutide users had a 42% lower one-year risk of hospitalization or death and tirzepatide users had a 58% lower risk versus sitagliptin.
• Researchers emulated placebo-controlled trials by comparing new users of the GLP-1–based drugs with patients taking sitagliptin, and presented the findings at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Madrid.
• Novo Nordisk’s retrospective STEER study of over 21,000 adults with cardiovascular disease but without diabetes reported a 57% greater reduction in major events for Wegovy (semaglutide 2.4 mg) versus tirzepatide during continuous treatment, and a 29% reduction across all treated patients.
• Investigators and cardiology leaders highlighted key limitations of the real-world data, including low absolute event counts and short follow-up, and stressed that observational studies cannot establish causation.
• Novo Nordisk argued the cardiovascular benefit may be molecule-specific rather than class-wide, while independent experts welcomed the signals but urged more randomized trials before practice or labeling changes; Novo shares rose about 3% on Monday.