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Long-term kidney outcomes of semaglutide in obesity and cardiovascular disease in the SELECT trial.

Nat Med · 2024

Last updated 2026-05-28

In a study of 17,604 adults with overweight or obesity and heart disease but without diabetes, those taking semaglutide (2.4 mg once weekly) had a 22% lower risk of serious kidney problems compared to those on a placebo over about two years. The risk of kidney issues like kidney failure or large drops in kidney function was 1.8% with semaglutide versus 2.2% with placebo. The drug also slowed the decline in kidney function slightly more than the placebo.

AI summary of the abstract below.

JournalNat Med, 2024
Citations158
Relative citation ratio30.56
NIH percentile100
Molecules semaglutide
Conditions studied Obesity, Cardiovascular Risk Reduction, Chronic Kidney Disease

Abstract

The SELECT trial previously reported a 20% reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events with semaglutide (n = 8,803) versus placebo (n = 8,801) in patients with overweight/obesity and established cardiovascular disease, without diabetes. In the present study, we examined the effect of once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg on kidney outcomes in the SELECT trial. The incidence of the pre-specified main composite kidney endpoint (death from kidney disease, initiation of chronic kidney replacement therapy, onset of persistent estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 15 ml min 1.73 m, persistent ≥50% reduction in eGFR or onset of persistent macroalbuminuria) was lower with semaglutide (1.8%) versus placebo (2.2%): hazard ratio (HR) = 0.78; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.63, 0.96; P = 0.02. The treatment benefit at 104 weeks for eGFR was 0.75 ml min 1.73 m (95% CI 0.43, 1.06; P < 0.001) overall and 2.19 ml min 1.73 m (95% CI 1.00, 3.38; P < 0.001) in patients with baseline eGFR <60 ml min 1.73 m. These results suggest a benefit of semaglutide on kidney outcomes in individuals with overweight/obesity, without diabetes.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03574597 .

Verbatim abstract via PubMed 38796653 ↗

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