FDA approves Wegovy for cutting heart attack risk

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved Novo Nordisk's (NVO) weight loss drug Wegovy for use in cutting heart attack or stroke risk in patients who are overweight. This could open the door for more patients to gain access to the blockbuster medication.

Yahoo Finance Healthcare Reporter Anjalee Khemlani reports the details in the video above.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We want to take a quick look at shares of Novo Nordisk. The US shares that is. The FDA approving the drugmaker's weight loss and diabetes drug Wegovy for use in cardiovascular risk reduction as well.

Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani here with this breaking news. So expanded indication for this.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Expanded indication. So that means that the label is now including cardiovascular risk reduction. And Novo Nordisk is free to say can now use this drug for that purpose.

Novo Nordisk has been studying for this purpose. And they got the results a little bit late last year showing 20% reduction in heart disease risk. That includes death, stroke, and heart attack.

So this really opens the door for, of course, even more prescriptions to be written. And this is specifically for overweight patients. I do want to point that out.

So that doesn't change the target population of the drug. Remember, Wegovy is the weight loss drug specifically, not the diabetes one. That's Ozempic.

So this is focusing on a very specific subset of the population. Now Novo Nordisk gets to do this amid, of course, the shortages that they're already facing. So this puts even more pressure on the drug there.

And that's something that they have to contend with. Also, nipping at its heels, once again, is Eli Lilly. They have been studying this for a lower blood pressure, and have a study recently out that shows that benefit.

And a doctor's suggest that they might be looking at Lilly's competition to Wegovy which is Zepbound for the same purpose. So they haven't said anything on that yet. But this just basically sets up what was expected, which is increased reasons to use these drugs, which is what is set up. That sort of blow away market for the companies.

JOSH LIPTON: All right. Two appearances from Anjalee today. Pulling double duty.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: I just walking out the door, and then I came back.

JOSH LIPTON: Thank you, Anj. appreciate it.