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Study Results Show 57% Decrease in Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke, or Death from Wegovy
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Key Takeaways
- Wegovy showed a 57% reduction in MACE compared to Tirzepatide in the Steer study, even with treatment gaps considered.
- The Select and Score trials further confirmed Wegovy's cardiovascular benefits, demonstrating significant risk reduction in MACE.
Novo Nordisk reveals Wegovy's 57% greater risk reduction for heart attack and stroke compared to Tirzepatide in obese patients at ESC Congress.
The Steer study showed a 29% reduction in the risk for heart attack, stroke, and death from any cause in Wegovy users.
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Novo Nordisk presented its data set (collected during the Steer real-world study) at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress, where results showed that when compared to Tirzepatide, Wegovy displayed 57% greater risk reduction for heart attack, stroke, and/or death in overweight patients and those struggling with obesity.
The Steer study
The Steer Study investigated the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) related to Wegovy and compared it to Tirzepatide treatments in patients struggling with obesity, being overweight, and those with established cardiovascular disease (CVD) without diabetes. Wegovy’s results showed a 57% reduction in MACE in patients who did not have a gap in their treatment lasting more than 30 days with 15 MACEs being recorded with Wegovy, and 39 with Tirzepatide.1
When the study doesn’t factor in treatment gaps in patients, Wegovy displayed a 29% risk reduction in heart attack, stroke, and death in patients after about 8 months of treatment. Additionally, the Steer study unveiled that regardless of treatment gaps, patients who were administered Wegovy experienced fewer instances of MACE compared to patients given Tirzepatide.
Ludovic Helfgott, executive vice president and head of product & portfolio strategy at Novo Nordisk, touched on the Steer study results, saying, “Our landmark trial, Select, showed that Wegovy® is associated with a significant 20% risk reduction of cardiovascular events, backed up with even greater risk reductions in the real-world studies Score and Steer. The results are clear, Steer demonstrates that Wegovy cuts the risk of heart attack, stroke or death by 57% compared to Tirzepatide. This data confirms that semaglutide stands apart as the only available GLP-1-based medication with proven cardiovascular benefits for people living with obesity and cardiovascular disease, without diabetes.”1
Why focus on obesity and cardiovascular disease?
Approximately 21 million people die from CVD annually, making it the leading cause of disability, and death worldwide.1 Obesity results in patients developing severe, and fatal side effects including, cardiovascular morbidity, mortality and hospitalization. Cardiovascular mortality has shown to be declining over the last two decades, along with obesity-related cardiovascular deaths simultaneously increasing, as two-in-three obesity-related deaths are correlated to CVD.
Wegovy also participated in the Select study, a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial evaluating Wegovy’s efficiency, compared to a similar placebo for the prevention of MACE in patients that are overweight, obese, and have established CVD with no prior history of diabetes. The Select trial was focused on demonstrating Wegovy’s superiority, compared to the placebo, with a focus aimed at reducing the incidence of 3-point MACE which consists of cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack (myocardial infarction), and/or non-fatal stroke. 1
Wegovy also participated in the Score trial. Score was conducted as a real-world study within the US, reviewing MACE outcomes among reported Wegovy users and non-users in real-world clinical practice. Similarly to the Select trial, participants in the Score trial were aged 45 years or younger, with each study group consisting of 10,625 particpents.1
Sources
- Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy® cuts risk of heart attack, stroke or death by 57% compared to tirzepatide in real-world study of people with obesity and cardiovascular disease Novo Nordisk August 31, 2025 https://www.novonordisk.com/content/nncorp/global/en/news-and-media/news-and-ir-materials/news-details.html?id=916422
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