NHS Scotland to offer semaglutide injections for heart attack and stroke prevention

NHS Scotland will now offer semaglutide injections to eligible patients to help reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events such as a stroke or heart attack, following recommendations from the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC).

This news comes after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) made the weight-loss jabs available to NHS patients in England and Wales for the same reasons in April.

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Following the guidance from SMC, patients in Scotland who have cardiovascular disease and are overweight – a BMI of 27 kg/m² or more – will be offered semaglutide injections for use alongside diet and exercise to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events.

Chair of the SMC, Dr Rob Peel said that the committee was pleased to be able to accept this new medicine for use by NHS Scotland.

‘Semaglutide will provide a useful treatment option to help reduce major cardiovascular events in patients who are overweight and have cardiovascular disease,’ he said.

The decision to approve the drug for this indication was based on data from the SELECT trial, which included more than 17,600 participants with established cardiovascular disease but not diabetes who took semaglutide or placebo alongside their existing medicines, such as statins and also had lifestyle advice.

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In 2023, the trial reported a 20% reduced risk of a serious cardiovascular event compared with placebo.

Professor Riyaz Patel, professor of cardiology at University College London and clinical lead for preventive cardiology at Barts Heart Centre, said: ‘Estimates suggest there are about four million people in the UK living with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, who remain at very high risk of subsequent or further heart attacks and strokes, and related deaths despite our best available treatments.

‘This risk comes with significant personal cost but also financial impacts on the NHS.’

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He added that the exact mechanism underpinning the cardiovascular benefits seen with semaglutide is still being investigated but is partly attributed to multiple parallel metabolic and vascular health benefits.

According to NHS Scotland, cardiovascular diseases cause more than a quarter of all deaths in Scotland – the second most common cause of death after cancer. Moreover, the country is predicting a 21% rise in disease burden by 2043.