GLP-1 drugs for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease

On Sept. 18, 2024, Dandelion Health, a platform that combines real-world data with clinical AI, published a whitepaper analyzing the effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists on cardiovascular disease. Researchers set out to determine whether GLP-1 drugs can act as a primary prevention tool for cardiovascular disease, reducing the risks of heart attack and stroke among high-risk patients who do not currently suffer from cardiovascular disease.

In the past, clinical trials on GLP-1 drugs have shown their benefits as a secondary prevention tool for cardiovascular disease (CVD), meaning they can reduce the probability of a heart attack or stroke in patients with preexisting cardiovascular disease.

However, it is more difficult to prove that GLP-1s are a primary prevention tool for CVD without conducting significantly longer and larger clinical studies.

Instead, Dandelion Health turned to real-world data to better understand GLP-1s’ role in the primary prevention of CVD. Using available patient data from January 2019 to October 2023, the researchers curated a multimodal real-world data set that included multiple pieces of data, such as diagnoses, medications, labs, vitals, procedures, demographic information, and ECGs.

Then, Dandelion Health selected, validated and applied an AI algorithm to analyze the data.

"The combined power of real-world data and AI has the potential to reshape how life sciences conduct clinical trials and research," said Shivaani Prakash, MSc, Ph.D., head of data at Dandelion Health, in the press release. "By combining diverse, multimodal data with validated AI, life sciences companies and researchers can now study treatment effects on a far larger, more representative population -- and do so at a fraction of the cost and time."

Researchers concluded that GLP-1 drugs might be beneficial as a primary prevention tool for CVD in clinically silent patients. According to the whitepaper, after three years of taking a GLP-1 drug, patients had a major adverse cardiac event (MACE) risk score that was 15%-20% lower than their non-GLP-1 counterparts.

Although only 6.2 million patients in the U.S. are currently eligible for Wegovy, a type of GLP-1 drug, the study estimates that 44 million patients nationwide could benefit from a GLP-1 drug for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, suggesting that the medications could be helpful for a broader population.

Based on those calculations and the data found in this study, Dandelion Health estimates that treating the 44 million patients in the U.S. who could benefit from a GLP-1 with one of the drugs could prevent up to 17,300 heart attacks and 16,700 strokes annually.

Although further research on the association of GLP-1 drugs with primary CVD prevention is critical, the data extrapolated from this study might contribute to repurposing and expanded indications for GLP-1 drugs.

Veronica Salib has covered news related to the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry since 2022.