Overview
- Across the SELECT trial’s 17,604 adults with overweight or obesity and established cardiovascular disease in 41 countries, semaglutide lowered major adverse cardiovascular events by about 20% versus placebo.
- The cardioprotective effect was consistent across baseline BMI groups, including participants around BMI 27, and was largely unrelated to how much weight was lost early in treatment.
- Reduction in waist circumference explained roughly one-third of the observed benefit, highlighting the particular importance of central adiposity in heart risk.
- Authors and outside experts say the results support broader use beyond strict BMI cutoffs, with ongoing NHS rollout plans and clinical guidelines likely to weigh these data.
- The prespecified analysis was published in The Lancet and funded by Novo Nordisk; researchers noted under-representation of women and non-white participants and called for more data on mechanisms, long-term safety and applicability to other GLP-1 therapies.