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Analysis and Health

Weight-loss drug Wegovy can avert heart attacks - will this widen use?

A trial has found that Wegovy can ward off heart attacks and strokes, as well as helping people lose weight. This extra string to the treatment's bow could make it more accessible

By Clare Wilson

11 November 2023

Wegovy wards off heart attacks, as well as causing weight loss

Michael Siluk / Alamy

Wegovy, the weight-loss injection made up of the drug semaglutide, can significantly cut people’s chance of having a heart attack or stroke, a trial has found.

This might seem like just the latest in a long line of positive studies for the medicine, but doctors who work in the field say this is a key result. In time, it could become as normalised to have weight-loss injections for your health as it is to take cholesterol-lowering statins.

Semaglutide is a once-weekly injection that mimics…

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