New research from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that medications used for weight loss, like semaglutide (sold as Ozempic and Wegovy) and tirzepatide (sold as Mounjaro), can lower the risk of hospitalization or death in people with a type of heart failure by more than 40%.
These drugs are already used to treat obesity and diabetes. Now, scientists are learning that they may have additional health benefits, especially for the heart.
In this study, researchers looked at heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a condition where the heart pumps well but becomes too stiff to fill with enough blood. This condition affects over 30 million people worldwide and has very few treatment options.
The study analyzed data from around 100,000 patients using health insurance records from the United States. The researchers compared people who were taking semaglutide or tirzepatide with people taking another diabetes drug that doesn’t affect heart failure.
They found that those using the weight-loss medications had more than a 40% lower chance of being hospitalized or dying from heart failure.
Professor Heribert Schunkert from TUM said this research provides strong evidence to support using these drugs in patients with heart failure. The study is one of the largest of its kind and gives hope for expanding the use of these drugs to more people.
Dr. Nils Krüger, the lead author, explained that heart failure is the main reason people are admitted to hospitals in Germany.
He said that because more and more people have obesity and diabetes, which make heart failure worse, finding effective treatments is important. These weight-loss medications could help many people and reduce healthcare costs.
The researchers also said that big studies like this, which use real-world data from healthcare systems, are helpful because they show how drugs work in everyday situations—not just in carefully controlled trials. They believe this kind of research can lead to faster improvements in patient care.
Germany is working on making more health insurance data available for research while protecting people’s privacy. Studies like this one show how useful that data can be for discovering better treatments and making healthcare decisions.
This research was published in the journal JAMA and could lead to expanded approval of these medications for heart failure in the future.
The study is published in JAMA.
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