--- title: Weight Loss Drug Wegovy Can Protect Against Heart Attacks description: It's the first weight-loss drug to carry an indication for heart benefits. canonical: https://time.com/6899164/wegovy-weight-loss-drug-heart-disease/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-03-08T22:13:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T17:15:57.657Z article:section: Health og:title: Wegovy Is Good for More Than Just Weight Loss og:description: It's the first weight-loss drug to carry an indication for heart benefits. og:url: https://time.com/6899164/wegovy-weight-loss-drug-heart-disease/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt790dd99854e5d72a/698a493bdb2987832826a4a6/wegovy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7063 og:image:height: 3973 og:image:alt: wegovy og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Wegovy Is Good for More Than Just Weight Loss twitter:description: It's the first weight-loss drug to carry an indication for heart benefits. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt790dd99854e5d72a/698a493bdb2987832826a4a6/wegovy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Wegovy Is Good for More Than Just Weight Loss > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=1ea4392b-a02f-4a5a-982e-9cfb675a259c&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 8, 2024 10:13 PM UTC  Novo Nordisk  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 8, 2024 10:13 PM UTC The obesity drug Wegovy can now claim to lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular issues in people who are overweight or who have obesity, and also have cardiovascular disease. It's the first weight-loss drug to carry an indication for heart benefits. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [approved the addition to the label](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-treatment-reduce-risk-serious-heart-problems-specifically-adults-obesity-or) on March 8 based on a [study](https://time.com/6334001/weight-loss-drug-wegovy-heart-study-results/) from Wegovy’s manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, showing that the drug lowered the risk of heart attack, stroke, or dying of heart-related issues in this population by 20% compared to people receiving placebo. When the results of the study [were first released](https://time.com/6334001/weight-loss-drug-wegovy-heart-study-results/) at the American Heart Association meeting last November, the findings were greeted with a round of applause from the heart experts in attendance. Obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease, and while doctors have an arsenal of medications to treat many other risk factors—such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes—they haven't had a powerful enough drug to help people lose weight until now. Wegovy, which was [approved](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-new-drug-treatment-chronic-weight-management-first-2014) in 2021, is the brand name for semaglutide. Ozempic, which was approved in 2017 to treat diabetes, is a lower dosage of semaglutide; in 2020, it too [received FDA approval](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fda-approves-ozempic-for-cardiovascular-risk-reduction-in-adults-with-type-2-diabetes-and-known-heart-disease-updates-rybelsus-label-300988672.html) for reducing the risk of major cardiovascular events in people with Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Patients taking Wegovy inject themselves once a week in increasing doses until they reach the target dose of 2.4 mg. People with a history of thyroid cancer should not use Wegovy, since semglutide has been linked to a higher risk of that cancer in animals (though not in people). Side effects of the injections include inflammation of the pancreas, kidney problems, and depression. “This is an entirely new pathway to harness, of addressing obesity and its metabolic complications,” said Dr. Amit Khera, director of the Preventive Cardiology Program at the [University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center](https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/), after the results on which the approval was based were released in November. “The fact that we have a new treatment avenue for patients with cardiovascular disease is incredibly exciting, and welcome.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6899164/wegovy-weight-loss-drug-heart-disease/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6899164/wegovy-weight-loss-drug-heart-disease/"},"headline":"Wegovy Is Good for More Than Just Weight Loss","datePublished":"2024-03-08T22:13:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T17:15:57.657Z","description":"It's the first weight-loss drug to carry an indication for heart benefits.","url":"https://time.com/6899164/wegovy-weight-loss-drug-heart-disease/","keywords":["heart health","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt790dd99854e5d72a/698a493bdb2987832826a4a6/wegovy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt790dd99854e5d72a/698a493bdb2987832826a4a6/wegovy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"wegovy","caption":"wegovy","creditText":"Novo Nordisk","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/heart-health/","name":"heart health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6899164/wegovy-weight-loss-drug-heart-disease/","name":"Wegovy Is Good for More Than Just Weight Loss"}}]}] ```