More than one million people to get ‘life-changing’ weight loss drugs to prevent heart attacks and strokes

More than a million people with heart disease could be prescribed weight loss jabs on the NHS to prevent them from having heart attacks or strokes.

Sold under the brand name Wegovy and made by Novo Nordisk, the weekly jab is a type of drug called a GLP-1 receptor agonist. It works by mimicking the natural hormone which regulates blood sugar, appetite and digestion.

The drug can be prescribed to lower blood sugar in people living with type 2 diabetes, but can also help people to lose weight and has been shown to work directly on the heart and blood vessels.

Now the NHS’s spending watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), has given the green light to give semaglutide to overweight and obese patients living with certain heart and circulatory conditions.

It is expected that 1.2 million people across England could benefit.

Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said the move was a “genuine win–win” that will improve patients’ quality of life.

“We now have medicines that not only reduce heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral arterial disease, but also simultaneously lead to meaningful weight loss – which in turn lowers the risk of many weight‑related conditions,” Prof Sattar said.

“Given that so many people living with cardiovascular disease also struggle with excess weight, it’s no longer sufficient to focus solely on lipids and blood pressure. We must also address weight directly if we want to deliver the best possible outcomes for our patients,” he added.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 1 April 2026