An AI study indicates that millions more individuals with lower cardiovascular risk could potentially benefit from GLP-1 treatments like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, expanding the drug's market and insurance coverage. The research, conducted by Dandelion Health, identified an additional 44 million patients who could experience cardiovascular benefits from GLP-1 drugs.
AI Identifies Broader Patient Population
Dandelion Health's study utilized its real-world data platform to analyze patient information and assess the potential of GLP-1 use in reducing major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in overweight and obese patients. The platform incorporates commercial and academic AI programs and accesses patient data through revenue-sharing agreements with health systems. According to Elliott Green, co-founder and CEO of Dandelion, this approach offers a faster and less expensive alternative to traditional clinical trials, potentially delivering results in weeks rather than years and incorporating larger, more diverse patient groups.
Study Design and Findings
The observational study mirrored the inclusion criteria of Novo Nordisk's SELECT trial, which demonstrated Wegovy's heart benefits, but focused on a patient group without severe pre-existing cardiovascular disease. Researchers employed an AI algorithm from Pheiron to identify cardiovascular risk indicators on patient electrocardiograms, assigning risk scores and comparing predicted risk for heart attacks and strokes between GLP-1 users and non-users. The study, which was seven times larger than Novo's trial, found that lower-risk individuals taking GLP-1 drugs experienced a 15% to 20% reduction in risk scores for MACE after three years of treatment. The authors estimate that treating this expanded patient population could prevent 17,300 heart attacks and 16,700 strokes annually.
Implications for Clinical Trials and Drug Development
The study authors suggest that this AI-driven methodology could lead to the identification of new biomarkers or surrogate endpoints for MACE risk, potentially enabling faster and smaller clinical trials by predicting cardiovascular outcomes earlier. Green noted that Dandelion is already working on another GLP-1 study using AI to assess muscle changes on patient abdominal CT scans to determine whether GLP-1 drugs also cause muscle loss during weight loss. The platform could also assist pharmaceutical companies in exploring and validating label expansion opportunities and conducting other types of research.
