Study: Weight Loss Drugs Lowered Coronavirus Deaths by 33 Percent

People on weight loss drugs — such as Ozempic and Wegovy — have a significantly lower chance of dying or suffering harsh effects from coronavirus, studies that the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) published found.

Subjects who were already on a 2.4 milligram (mg) dose of semaglutide, the active ingredient in drugs that help the pancreas release the right amount of insulin when blood sugar levels are high and may decrease one’s appetite, had “consistently lower rates” of dying of any cause over the trial period, researchers found.

The research was led by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and financially backed by Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, according to the Harvard Gazette.

Over the mean trial duration of 3.3 years, 17,604 cardiovascular disease patients 45 years old or older with a BMI (body mass index) of 27 kg/m^2 or more — overweight — were observed by the researchers taking either semaglutide or a placebo.

Although the study started before the coronavirus pandemic, researchers said that “the most severe periods [of the outbreak] were concurrent with the ongoing trial, thus providing the opportunity to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on patients who were at high risk of COVID-19-related complications and death given their underlying comorbidities.” (Read more from “Study: Weight Loss Drugs Lowered Coronavirus Deaths by 33 Percent” HERE)