Diabetes Drug Semaglutide Curbs Premature Death, Major Kidney Ailments, Heart Attacks

New Delhi: A drug named semaglutide prescribed for diabetes and weight loss was found to be reducing risk of major kidney disease, cardiovascular attacks and premature death in patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease, reported The Telegraph.

The researchers, announcing the results of their international clinical trial on Friday stating that patients who received semaglutide once a week had a 24 per cent reduced risk of worsening kidney disease and premature death from cardiovascular- or kidney-related causes in comparison to patients who received placebo.

The clinical trial involved over 3,500 participants for more than three years. It was found that the once-weekly intake of semaglutide reduced the risk of of heart attacks by 18 per cent and the risk of “all-cause mortality” by 20 per cent.

The reduced risks imply “a profound clinical impact saving kidneys, hearts, and lives for patients with type-2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease”, Vlado Perkovic, professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, said in a media release from the European Renal Association.

Perkovic was set to present the trial’s findings at an ERA conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on Friday. The findings were also published on Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine.