Semaglutide, a weight loss drug recently linked to key cardiovascular benefits for obese and overweight patients, may have a limited impact due to its significant price tag. At least, that’s the perspective of Airfinity, a disease forecasting company that uses predictive health data to anticipate how certain developments could impact the market at large.
Back in August, Novo Nordisk, which sells subcutaneous treatments of semaglutide 2.4 mg under the brand name Wegovy, shared initial findings from the SELECT trial that suggested the medication could help obese and overweight patients reduce their risk of a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) by up to 20%. Weeks later, researchers at ESC Congress 2023, the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, presented research on semaglutide’s potential to improve outcomes among certain heart failure patients.
The team at Airfinity focused on those early SELECT trial results, estimating that 63 patients would need to be treated with semaglutide over a three-year period to prevent one heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death. Because the current Wegovy price tag is $1,350 per month, researchers wrote that the cost of treating those 63 patients would be approximately $1.1 million—and that’s even after considerable rebates were included.