The biggest heart health breakthrough since statins? Largest study to date shows Ozempic can dramatically lower risk of major heart problems regardless of weight lost
READ MORE: Pharmacy giant launches fat jabs withdrawal programme
By EMILY STEARN, SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER
Published: 23:30 BST, 22 October 2025 | Updated: 23:58 BST, 22 October 2025
Gamechanger weight loss jabs could slash a patient's risk of suffering a heart attack and stroke regardless of how many pounds they shed, promising research has suggested.
Semaglutide—the powerful ingredient behind Wegovy and Ozempic—has long been hailed a monumental breakthrough in the war on obesity.
Yet, mounting evidence has emerged in recent years to suggest the drugs could prove to be lifesaving for a range of other conditions including heart disease, asthma and even alcohol addiction.
Now, in a major global study—the largest and longest trial to date examining the cardiovascular benefits of semaglutide—British scientists discovered such benefits were apparent regardless of how much weight patients lost on the drug.
The researchers found that the amount of weight lost early on didn't predict who would have fewer heart problems.
Shrinking waist size—a sign of less belly fat—however, accounted for around a third of semaglutide's overall heart health benefit and cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes by almost a fifth.
The findings suggest the jabs could have wider benefits for patients so should not be restricted solely to severely obese patients, the scientists said.
But experts today, who labelled the findings 'profound', cautioned that further research was vital to prove exactly why the jabs had this effect.
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Professor John Deanfield, an expert in cardiology at University College London and study lead author, said: 'Abdominal fat is more dangerous for our cardiovascular health than overall weight.
'Therefore it is not surprising to see a link between reduction in waist size and cardiovascular benefit.
'However, this still leaves two thirds of the heart benefits of semaglutide unexplained. These findings reframe what we think this medication is doing.
'It is labelled as a weight loss jab but its benefits for the heart are not directly related to the amount of weight lost.
'In fact, it is a drug that directly affects heart disease and other diseases of ageing.'
He added: 'This work has implications for how semaglutide is used in clinical practice.
'You don't have to lose a lot of weight and you don't need a high BMI to gain cardiovascular benefit.
'If your aim is to reduce cardiovascular disease, restricting its use to a limited time only and for those with the highest BMIs doesn't make sense.
'At the same time, the benefits need to be weighed against potential side effects.
'Investigations of side effects become especially important given the broad range of people this medicine and others like it could help.'
The global trial was carried out across 41 countries and involved 17,604 patients aged at least 45 who were either overweight or obese.
Half were given the highest available dose of semaglutide, 2.4mg, each week while the other half was given a dummy drug, known as a placebo.
They found that patients with a body mass index (BMI) score of 27—the average BMI score for UK adults, classing them as overweight—saw similar benefits as those who had the highest BMI scores.
Writing in the prestigious journal The Lancet, they said the benefits were also largely independent of how much weight people lost in the first four months of treatment.
But the researchers did notice a difference between shrinking waistlines, measured by waist circumference, and heart benefits.
An 'estimated 33 per cent of the observed benefit on major adverse cardiovascular events was mediated through waist circumference reduction', they noted.
This cut the risk of an event such as a heart attack or stroke by 14 per cent.
Responding to the study's findings, Professor Tim Chico, an expert in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Sheffield who wasn't involved in the research, said: 'It suggests the benefits of the drug are not only caused by causing weight loss.
'The implications of this and other similar studies are profound.
'The average man or woman in the UK has a BMI over 27, so most people with heart disease are likely to benefit from adding semaglutide to their existing drugs, which already usually include aspirin, statins, blood pressure lowering drugs, and other blood thinners.
'Evidence from this and other studies suggests we should consider giving these drugs to the very large number of people likely to get a meaningful benefit.'
Professor Azeem Majeed, an expert in primary care and public health at Imperial College London, added: 'The findings reinforce the use of semaglutide as a disease-modifying therapy for high-risk patients and not just as a weight-loss tool.
'In future, this may potentially lead to broadening the use of semaglutide beyond strict BMI cutoffs and encouraging its earlier use in cardiovascular disease prevention.'
Semaglutide injections have been shown to help users lose up to 33lbs (15.3kg) on average over 68 weeks.
They work by tricking the brain into thinking it's full, consequently slashing appetite, and helping people lose weight as a result.
Semaglutide has been available on the NHS since 2019, and in the US since 2017, for type 2 diabetics to manage blood sugar levels.
Another semaglutide drug was also approved in Britain for weight loss in 2022, and in the US in 2021, under the brand Wegovy.
The NHS in England is rolling out weight loss jabs to 240,000 people with the highest need over the next three years.
Two in three Britons are classed as overweight or obese and NHS figures show people now weigh about a stone more than 30 years ago.
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The biggest heart health breakthrough since statins? Largest study to date shows Ozempic can dramatically lower risk of major heart problems regardless of weight lost
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