Novo Nordisk has announced results from the large real-world REACH study, showing that once-weekly injectable Ozempic (semaglutide) was linked to a 23% lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE)—such as heart attack or stroke—compared to dulaglutide.
The analysis included nearly 60,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the United States aged 66 years and older, all living with Type 2 diabetes, Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), and multiple other health conditions. The findings were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD 2025 Annual Meeting) held from 15–19 September in Vienna, Austria.
“As we age, the risk of experiencing a heart attack, stroke or dying from a cardiovascular event increases. At the same time, there are limited clinical data for people living with diabetes and cardiovascular disease aged 66 years or older. These data, showing a 23% risk reduction of a heart attack, stroke and death, fill an important gap and reinforce the well-established clinical evidence of semaglutide,” said Filip Krag Knop, senior vice president and incoming chief medical officer at Novo Nordisk. “This is great news for older patients as well as healthcare professionals, as these results build on the importance of our randomised clinical trial data assessing the effectiveness of treatments in a real-life setting. This also supports what we already know from our clinical development programmes that not all GLP-1 RAs are the same.”
In addition, once-weekly semaglutide was associated with a 25% lower risk of a composite five-point MACE—including heart attack, stroke, hospitalization for unstable angina or heart failure, and death from any cause.
Ozempic is currently the only GLP-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) proven to reduce both cardiovascular and kidney events in people with type 2 diabetes. These findings mark the first direct comparison of cardiovascular outcomes between Ozempic and dulaglutide in US Medicare patients, adding to the growing body of real-world evidence supporting Ozempic.