Ozempic research is ‘exciting’, says British Heart Foundation’s Chief Medical Officer

We spoke to Professor Bryan Williams, the Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at the British Heart Foundation, who’s attending the conference in London, and began by asking for his assessment of claims that it could slow ageing and prolong life.

Bryan Williams: So my assessment of that is if you are overweight, and particularly if you’re extremely overweight and you develop type two diabetes as well, then we already know that shortens life. The shortening of life is due to a range of conditions, mainly cardiovascular disease and kidney disease, but also things like cancer that are associated with ageing. So that’s where the claim has come from. My sense is that what these studies are showing is that the accumulation of fat in the body sets off a whole range of processes that are detrimental to our health and that have far reaching consequences. Inevitably, the Holy Grail has always been to look for treatments that will prolong life. We have a treatment here, alongside blood pressure control and statins, and other treatments that we use to prevent cardiovascular disease, that will prolong life in patients who need the treatment because they have diabetes or are overweight. That’s why we’re excited, that’s why some of our colleagues get overexcited. That’s where we stand today.

Jackie Long: Just to be clear, some of the conditions that are being talked about in connection with this now include things like arthritis and Alzheimer’s. I mean, where is it in terms of those conditions?

Bryan Williams: So I think if you look at obesity and you look at the consequences of obesity, all of those things are well recognised in people who have excessive weight, particularly extremes of excessive weight. I think we know these associations exist. What’s exciting is that some of these associated diseases may be reversed, or at least the risk of them reversed, by reducing weight with this treatment. I suspect if people were able to reduce their weight by an equivalent amount, by following longstanding guidance to eat healthy and take more exercise and ‘look after yourself’, we’d probably get the same benefits. And that’s probably one of the reasons why people who adopt those lifestyles don’t get those diseases that we’ve just mentioned quite so often until very late in their longer lives.

Jackie Long: And just in terms of the whole picture, this drug won’t necessarily suit everyone. Is there a word of caution about that?

Bryan Williams: Yeah, like any medication, it should be prescribed by a clinician who understands the reasons for prescribing it and can advise patients on the potential consequences. I’ve seen this drug used by many patients. The commonest side effect that patients get is nausea or in some cases, vomiting, and they have to down titrate the dose, to try and get to a dose that doesn’t cause those symptoms. In some patients, and there have been many well publicised cases of various people in the news, they’re not able to tolerate the drug at all. And that does sometimes happen. There are some rare side effects, such as inflammation of the pancreas – that’s an organ in the body that produces insulin. That can be quite serious. Fortunately, they’re very rare, and the medical profession is well aware of them and will monitor for those kinds of things. But it is a medication. It is a drug treatment, and we should be using it under medical supervision and making sure that the right people get access to this treatment.

Jackie Long: But it is also one, at this precise moment with the information that is coming out, that gives us cause for optimism.

Bryan Williams: Oh, absolutely. We always get excited at the British Heart Foundation, amongst our cardiology colleagues, whenever we see a treatment that adds to what we’ve got already – in terms of reducing the burden of heart disease and stroke, and this is the first of many.