{"id":704650,"date":"2026-06-15T02:24:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T02:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704650\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T02:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T02:24:52","slug":"weight-loss-jab-wegovy-to-be-offered-on-nhs-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/704650\/","title":{"rendered":"Weight-loss jab Wegovy to be offered on NHS in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"

SMC chairman Dr Rob Peel said: “The committee is pleased to be able to accept these new medicines for use by NHS Scotland.<\/p>\n

“Semaglutide will provide a useful treatment option to help reduce major cardiovascular events in patients who are overweight and have cardiovascular disease.”<\/p>\n

Drug trials suggest Wegovy, external<\/a> can significantly reduce the risk of future heart and circulation problems.<\/p>\n

Benefits were seen early in the clinical trial, before significant weight loss occurred. <\/p>\n

This suggests the drug works directly on the heart and blood vessels, not just through weight loss, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, clinical director at the British Heart Foundation who is also a consultant cardiologist, said: “So-called ‘weight loss drugs’ like semaglutide have proven benefits beyond reducing the number on the scales \u2013 they are now considered important medicines for preventing deadly heart attacks and strokes.<\/p>\n

“Today’s guidance for Scotland will no doubt help save lives as cardiovascular disease is still one of the country’s biggest killers.<\/p>\n

“That’s why it’s so important that when we get new and effective medicines which prevent cardiovascular disease complications, like semaglutide, that they get to everyone who could benefit as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Each year in the UK, there are about 100,000 hospital admissions due to heart attacks. Another 100,000 people experience a stroke and around 350,000 people live with peripheral arterial disease.<\/p>\n

People who have already had one of these health issues are at higher risk of experiencing more problems.<\/p>\n

Experts estimate that disease might be prevented in about seven in 10 cases based on the best evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SMC chairman Dr Rob Peel said: “The committee is pleased to be able to accept these new medicines…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[97,243],"class_list":["post-704650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}