Efficacy of semaglutide: an evidence-based review

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) dominates the chronic non-communicable disease pandemics by its exceptionally rapid expansion into communities all over the world. In many countries diabetes is a socially significant disease. According to the data over the past decade, the number of people with T2DM has more than doubled globally. Equally disturbing is the fact that there are more than 250 million people with undiagnosed T2DM and more than 300 million with prediabetes. For 2045, it was estimated by the International Diabetes Federation that 693 million people will have diabetes. T2DM is a disorder of complex nature that urges further dedicated studies and ingenuity in the search for novel therapeutic approaches and on the pathogenetic links of disease. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in people with T2DM, and diabetes itself confers a substantial independent risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and death from other vascular causes. The article discusses an urgent challenge of modern healthcare – the role of new class of sugar-lowering drugs (exogenously administered glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (arGLP-1)) semaglutide in reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular complications. The authors paid attention to the main results of SUSTAIN clinical program and use as initial treatment for patients with T2DM with very high risk indicated in the new European guidelines with a view to get additional advantages in terms of life prognosis.