India Pharma Outlook Team | Monday, 22 September 2025
Novo Nordisk revealed the findings of the REACH real-world study, which showed that Ozempic (once-weekly injectable semaglutide) was linked to a 23% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events like a heart attack or stroke when compared to dulaglutide.
The data included almost 60,000 US Medicare patients (aged =66 years) with type 2 diabetes, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), a condition in which fatty deposits accumulate in blood vessels, reducing blood flow and raising the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and related issues, as well as several other medical conditions.
The findings were shared at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting, which happened from September 15-19, 2025, in Vienna, Austria.
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“As we age, the risk of experiencing a heart attack, stroke or dying from a cardiovascular event increases. At the same time, there are limited clinical data for people living with diabetes and cardiovascular disease aged 66 years or older. These data, showing a 23% risk reduction of a heart attack, stroke and death, fill an important gap and reinforce the well-established clinical evidence of semaglutide,” said Filip Krag Knop, senior vice president and incoming chief medical officer at Novo Nordisk.
“This is great news for older patients as well as healthcare professionals, as these results build on the importance of our randomised clinical trial data assessing the effectiveness of treatments in a real-life setting. This also supports what we already know from our clinical development programmes that not all GLP-1 RAs are the same.”
In addition to these important benefits, once-weekly semaglutide was associated with 25% risk reduction in heart attack, stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina or heart failure, and mortality from any reason (five-point MACE).
