The obesity drug Ozempic cuts a person’s risk of dying from heart disease by 20%, new research has concluded. 

The five-year study by University College London tracked the health of 17,604 adults over the age of 45 from 41 countries and concluded it had a positive impact on patients’ cardiovascular health. 

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, Professor Donal O’Shea said there is a “lot of excitement” about the findings which have been presented to the European Congress on Obesity. 

“If you were on the drug, you had an 8% chance of a major event, if you were not on the drug you had a 10%,” he said. 

“When they launched the study, they’ll say this is a 20% reduction and that’s the relative risk reduction - but the absolute is from 10% to 8%. 

“In cardiovascular disease, - stroke, heart attack et cetera - this is a major finding and it does have implications for how we will manage prevention into the future.” 

Prescriptions counter at a Boots pharmacy.

Some experts have even gone so far as to describe it as the biggest medical breakthrough since the invention of statins and it could even boost countries' economic productivity - thanks to healthier citizens. 

“In economic terms, death is cheap because it’s over,” Professor O’Shea said. 

“But it’s the morbidity, it’s the living longer post a stroke, living longer post a heart attack where you’re not able to get back to work and where you’re a vibrant economic member of the community. 

“That’s where the pharmacoeconomics will come into it and they look at this and say, ‘How aggressive do we need to be looking at this kind of potential reduction in cardiovascular disease?’” 

The end of obesity?

Patients prescribed the drug lost on average 10.2% of their body weight over a 10-year period but Professor O’Shea cautioned that the drug will not mean the end of obesity in western society. 

“The idea that we would think ourselves out of the obesity pandemic is not thinkable or sustainable,” he said. 

“There are socio-economic factors at play but if you go back to the early days of Operation Transformation, the idea of us even having these conversations about pharmacotherapy delivering 25% and 30% weight loss is amazing. 

“What I think is fascinating about these treatments is that they’re all generated from hormones that our own body produces. 

“So, the answers to our most critical challenges are coming from adapting the body’s own chemicals and hormones.” 

According to the HSE, six out of 10 Irish people are overweight.

Main image: A person standing on weighing scales.