Drugs for obesity could be used as a primary prevention tool for heart attacks, new study says

Certain drugs used to treat obesity and diabetes could also be used as a primary prevention method against heart attacks and stroke, according to a new study from AI health platform Dandelion Health.

The medications, known as GLP-1 drugs, include Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, Saxenda, Ozempic and Rybelsus.  

Dandelion Health found that the subjects who took a GLP-1 medicine had a 15-20% lower chance of a major adverse cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke after three years, compared to subjects who did not take a GLP-1 drug, the company said in a release.

The study also said that if the around 44 million Americans fitting the study’s criteria all took GLP-1 drugs, the yearly number of heart attacks and strokes could drop by as much as 34,000.

About 3% of all Americans suffer a heart attack or stroke each year, according to a Dandelion Health white paper.

Using its GLP-1 data library, Dandelion Health looked at obese subjects at least 45 years or older with less severe or no cardiovascular disease and no prior history, and available electrocardiogram data, according to the white paper.

“In clinical research, you take the moderate to severe patients because you require fewer patients to prove out the efficacy. But there’s this huge danger that you will consistently miss the impact of medication on broader populations because you just can’t afford the time or money to study them,” Dandelion Health CEO Elliott Green told CNN.

An AI algorithm then used the electrocardiogram data to predict future risk of a heart attack or stroke over time.

Dandelion Health contrasted their study with a Novo Nordisk study which focused on reduction of heart attacks or strokes in non-diabetic obese subjects with a pre-existing severe cardiovascular disease or prior history.

Patients who took GLP-1 drugs in the Dandelion Health study started showing signs of risk reduction at about 1.7 years, even earlier than in the Novo Nordisk study, which showed risk reduction after about three years.

Dandelion Health’s study, the company says, took far less time — six weeks versus five years — and was much cheaper than the Novo Nordisk study done the traditional way.