AsianScientist (Aug. 31, 2025) – As people live longer than ever, dementia is emerging as one of the world’s most pressing health challenges. Globally, millions of families already grapple with its devastating impact, and with no cure in sight, scientists are turning their focus toward identifying risk factors that can be managed or prevented.
Among the many suspects, painkillers may not be the first to come to mind. But new research suggests that regular opioid use, which is a common treatment for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP), could significantly raise the risk of dementia, particularly vascular dementia.
CNCP refers to any persistent pain lasting more than three months that is not linked to cancer. It affects about 30 percent of the global population and is expected to grow steadily.
The findings, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, shed light on how long-term opioid use may affect the brain, offering new insights into the complex links between pain, medication, and cognitive decline.
The study revealed that people who regularly used opioids had a 20 percent higher risk of developing all-cause dementia compared to those taking other painkillers. The risk was even greater among strong opioid users, who faced more than a 70 percent increase of developing dementia. By contrast, individuals using non-opioid analgesics had dementia risks similar to non-users.
For this study, the researchers conducted a prospective cohort study involving 197,673 individuals with CNCP aged 37 to 73 from the UK Biobank – a large-scale biomedical research database and resource in the United Kingdom – with a mean follow-up of 13.8 years.
The study was led by Sha Feng, associate researcher from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Jed A. Barash, Medical Director at the Massachusetts Veterans Home at Chelsea, and W. Andrew Kofke, Professor, the University of Pennsylvania.
“Our findings suggest that long-term opioid use may be neurotoxic and associated with an increased risk of dementia, which underscores the importance of weighing the cognitive risks of opioid use when managing CNCP,” the researchers stated in the study.
Since the mid-1990s, opioids have been widely prescribed to manage CNCP, but their inappropriate use, dependency issues, and misuse of high-potency opioids have raised public health concerns.
“Previous studies have suggested that opioid use may affect the endogenous opioid system and potentially impair the hippocampus and other central nervous system regions, increasing the risk of cognitive decline and dementia,” the paper stated.
Brain scans showed that regular use of strong opioids was linked to a shrinkage in overall brain size, including white matter and the hippocampus, an area vital for memory. Opioid users also performed worse on tests of fluid intelligence, though their prospective memory – the ability to remember to carry out future tasks, like taking medication or keeping appointments – was not significantly affected.
According to the study, these findings highlight the need to consider both the strength of the opioid and the length of use when assessing how these drugs may contribute to dementia and other health risks.
—
Source: Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology ; Image: Shutterstock
The study can be found at: Regular use of opioids and dementia, cognitive measures, and neuroimaging outcomes among UK Biobank participants with chronic non-cancer pain
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
Eight years is a long time to be out of the game for a rapper. That’s nearly 3,000 days away from the spotlight, out of the charts, out of sight and out of mind. Taking a break of that scale isn’t advisable for any artist, let alone a young rapper still on the rise. Yet this is exactly what Tinie Tempah did when, at 29 years old with seven No 1s and two Brit Awards to his name, he hit the brakes.
“I felt like a Lil Wayne or a Justin Bieber in the sense that I’ve been doing it a long time, so I always said to myself that when I got to 30, I’d take a break,” he says now, still only 36 but passing for late twenties in an oversized grey hoodie and sneakers. “My life had been so surreal and I wanted to do normal things: hang out with my friends, have kids, try other hobbies.” He has a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Rewind to 2017 and Tempah, née Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu Jr, was at the height of his cultural influence. He had established himself as a perceptive and intricate lyricist with slick, cheeky songs like “Pass Out” and “Frisky” that channelled some of rap’s febrile energy into sticky dancefloor pop. He had been anointed GQ’s best-dressed man and appeared on Top Gear. Prince William, a fan, gave him a high-five on live TV.
From the outside looking in, the hiatus was baffling. From where Tempah was standing, it was all part of the plan. He’d heard the horror stories: all the rock stars, the tech entrepreneurs, the finance guys who regretted not spending enough time with their children, and so he set about creating a family. He married Eve De Haan, daughter of Sir Roger De Haan, in 2019, and has two children, now aged four and seven. “For me, none of this is worth it if my house is not intact,” he says. Turns out, Tempah is no longer the man who “just wanna have eh eh”.
His hits didn’t go away during his absence. Like “Mr Brightside”, his songs represent the party playlist terra firma, deployed at bars and in late-night taxis to perk up flagging revellers. But the time has come for new songs and new crowd-pleasers. This month, he released “Eat It Up” – a fierce, frantic track in collaboration with Skepsis, built on the skittish polyrhythms of drum and bass. Like its predecessors, the song is primed for sweaty dancefloors – that is, if there are any left in the UK in the coming years.
In tandem with releasing new music, Tempah is throwing his support behind The Last Night Out, a campaign from Night Time Industries Association to address the country’s rapidly declining number of clubs and music venues. A toxic mix of Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis (a situation not helped, perhaps, by a lack of young people eager to drink and party) means three UK clubs are closing every week. “By 2029, there’s going to be virtually nothing left,” he tells me from across the booth, looking solemn. The partnership makes sense: Tempah is, to many, an avatar for the UK’s once robust nightlife scene of yesteryear – a time when Fabric, Turnmills and Ministry of Sound dominated the music scene, of which Tempah was a crucial part.
After all, it was at many of those clubs that Tempah cut his teeth as a south London teen during the Noughties, bopping around High Wycombe, Luton, Bury St Edmunds and Wolverhampton. It was also there that he first got interested in fashion as a way to distinguish himself from the other 16-year-old fans he was performing to. “That was my rite of passage. It was my 10,000 hours in a live space,” he says. “I had to overcome stage fright. I had to overcome ego. Sometimes you’re expected to pack out a show and you get there and there’s 10 people and a tumbleweed rolling through. You still need to do your thing.”
Plus, the fans you earn from those live shows are the ones who will stick around. “Social media fans are fickle,” he observes. “The more content you put out on there, the more people find you, but it’s the ones I brought on board at the start of my career who are still with me today.”
Tempah has seven No 1s and two Brit Awards to his name (Getty)
At 36, Tempah might look younger, but he seems older than he is. His confidence isn’t quiet per se – before we begin, he briskly shoos away his team who have set up camp in the booth with us – but there’s no sign of the cold swagger he paraded on early tracks (“I’m fairly famous, I’m sorta known/ And if your son doesn’t, I bet your daughter knows”). His trademark braggadocio is still in evidence on “Eat It Up”, but it’s coming from the vantage point of reflection: “Remember when they wouldn’t book us for a fiver?”
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Tempah certainly remembers. “There were a lot of people who resisted,” he says, speaking of his more pop-leaning sound. The 2010s saw a re-energised grime scene, out of which Tempah himself emerged, but his forays into other genres weren’t always welcome. He points to his 2006 breakout demo “Wifey” as an example. “When I dropped that, I was 18 and everyone was doing really hard-line rap talking about street life, and there I was on an R&B tune talking about a girl I like,” he says. “People thought I was soft. Now you’ve got AJ Tracey and Unknown T sampling it.” In other words, he was right all along. “It’s validating to see that,” he smiles, or is it a smirk?
A lot of men, and I’m not talking just musically, hit their peak at 40 or 50 – so watch this space
As far as the purists were concerned, he was diluting the essence of what made British rap British. Yet for him, there was nothing more British than folding in other sounds. “I had the Nigerian influence from my parents, and two younger sisters who were always listening to Destiny’s Child, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, Steps and all that,” he says. “I felt like being able to mix all that stuff up was almost a perfect representation of UK culture versus trying to make the purest rap possible.” He traded in the more abrasive, chunky beats of his still excellent 2007 mixtape Hood Economics for a glossier sound, and the world responded.
It was seeing the crossover success of Dizzee Rascal and So Solid Crew in the early Noughties that broadened his horizons as a school kid putting out music. “These were the guys that I saw breaking out of that kind of confined zone that we were in, which was initially restricted to pirate radio stations, where we were almost like faceless entities,” he says. “I remember when Dizzee supported Red Hot Chili Peppers [in 2012], and that was such a juxtaposition. This grime guy from east London is flying around the world with the Red Hot Chili Peppers – what the hell? For me, it was reaffirming the fact that all my ideas and where this could go was possible.”
The 2010s saw a re-energised grime scene, out of which Tempah himself emerged (Sophia J Carey)
Still, it was a big deal for his family when Tempah forgoed his studies to pursue a music career. “I’m the eldest in my Nigerian family with two younger sisters and a brother who’d I’d always had to be a role model for,” he says by way of explanation. “I was embarrassed to not go to university; I felt like I was letting the side down by not completing my education to do something which has no guarantee of working.” After he found success, it was that same up-from-the-bootstraps work ethic gleaned from his parents, who moved from Nigeria and started a property business, that stopped him from getting complacent or cocky. “I always was scared of becoming or being considered as a one-hit wonder, and I felt like [any display of] ego was going to fast-track that,” he says. “You start thinking that you’ve made it before you have and before you know it, you’re faded into the past.”
Inevitably, the musical landscape he’s entering now is very different from the one he left nearly a decade ago. For the better, he says. “Wherever I go in the world, people know me or Stormzy or they’ll know Dave or whoever. We’re considered artists on the world stage and taken seriously. When I first started out, it was very marginalised. People didn’t know what we were doing; they thought we were trying to copy American culture. It was very misunderstood.”
Tinie Tempah at the BT Digital Music Awards 2010 at London’s Roundhouse (PA)
Likewise, Black culture is getting its due, finally. “A lot of Black culture is synonymous with ‘cool’ and I feel like that’s always been known, but it’s also, in my opinion, underappreciated,” he says. “When Black people think something is cool, typically it is.” For his part, Tempah, known back then for his preppy-meets-street style look, has been as much a fashion reference as he was a musician. Having rappers such as A$AP Rocky sitting front row now at fashion shows makes sense, he says. “They’re taste-makers of culture and before everyone knew it, but no one celebrated it. Now it’s a celebration, and an acknowledgement.”
In the decade between 2010 and 2020, Tempah notched no fewer than seven UK No 1s – more than any other rapper, and only bested by Calvin Harris and Ed Sheeran, who had eight each. It’s an impressive feat. I wonder aloud whether he feels he ever got his flowers for that chart-topping success. “I used to care about that more when I was younger,” he says, even-keeled in his response. “One little comment on social media could affect me – or even that question itself. But maybe I haven’t totally got my flowers yet because I’m just not done. A lot of men, and I’m not talking just musically, hit their peak at 40 or 50, that’s when you see titans. So yeah, watch this space.” He grins. “And anyway, I’ve got loads of flowers in my garden.”
From wild horses to trusted riding partners | The Jerusalem Post
DNA of ancient horses reveals 3 genetic variants boosting size from 2,700 years ago, enabling heavier loads and riders as they spread from Russian river basins.
.(photo credit: Illustration: orsola iacono at Shutterstock)ByMAITAL ROZENBOIM
A baby whose mother was not vaccinated against whooping cough died of the disease this year, public health data shows.
The infant, who is believed to have been under the age of one, died between March and June, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
It is the first baby whooping cough death in the UK this year.
According to the UKHSA, 33 babies died of the disease between 2013 and June 2025.
As vaccinations are offered at 12 months, they were all too young to have been immunised, relying instead on their mothers and those around them to have immunity.
Jabs for whooping cough, or pertussis, were introduced for pregnant women in October 2012.
Of the 33 babies who died between 2013 and 2025, 27 had mothers who were not vaccinated in pregnancy, including the one this year.
Read more: What vaccines are recommended and when? Why are vaccination rates so low?
UKHSA deputy director Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, told The Times: “Sadly, with a further infant death in the second quarter of 2025, we are again reminded how severe whooping cough can be for very young babies. Our thoughts and condolences are with the family who have so tragically lost their baby.”
Whooping cough is an infection of the lungs and breathing tubes and can be serious for infants as they are more vulnerable.
The whooping cough death comes after the NHS announced it will roll out chickenpox vaccines to babies for the first time.
Major concerns have been raised by health professionals over declining childhood vaccination rates, with data showing none of the routine infant jabs were on target in England last year.
Rates of measles are up nationwide, with a child death reported at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool in July.
The vaccine against chickenpox, or varicella, will be added to the combined one for mumps, measles, and rubella from January 2026 and made available for all 12 to 18-month-olds.
IntegrateRNA Launches Custom Aminoacyl-tRNA In Vitro Synthesis Service to Support Protein Synthesis
Expanding the Scope of Protein Synthesis via Customized Aminoacyl-tRNA Generation to Facilitate Incorporation of Non-Canonical Amino Acids in Synthetic Biology and Therapeutic Development.
NEW YORK, NY, August 31, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ — Creative Biogene’s R&D focused business division, IntegrateRNA, which specializes in providing easy-to-use, superior products as well as high-quality novel services, today announced the launch of its Aminoacyl-tRNA In Vitro Synthesis Service. This service will help support and drive protein synthesis research by enabling the generation of customized aminoacylated tRNAs. The molecules are key to robust protein translation in in vitro systems, thus allowing for more accurate and scalable protein synthesis of non-canonical amino acid-containing proteins.
The technology is set to provide researchers with the tools they need to engineer proteins with improved functional characteristics and will find applications in synthetic biology, drug discovery, enzyme engineering, and more.
Technical Features and Innovations
The service works by taking advantage of a robust in vitro translation system to covalently link amino acids to transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules. This enzyme-based process, which is similar to that which happens inside living cells during translation, will enable the high-yield production of aminoacylated tRNAs. The technology will also support the inclusion of non-canonical or modified amino acids, enabling an expanded design space for researchers. This means that scientists can now design and produce custom proteins with enhanced stability, activity, or specificity, and have potential applications in developing new therapeutics or industrial enzymes.
Industries and Use Cases
Anticipated across pharma R&D, protein engineering, and novel biologics development, the use cases for this service include the ability to insert non-standard amino acids into proteins, which can help researchers create protein variants with unique properties that may not be possible through natural processes alone.
Marcia Brady, Head of Technology, Creative Biogene, stated: “Synthesizing proteins with non-canonical amino acids is a transformative development. It opens up new possibilities for designing proteins with specific properties and could significantly speed up the development of biotechnology.”
Plans for the Future
In the future, IntegrateRNA plans to improve its Aminoacyl-tRNA synthesis platform by enabling support for an even broader array of amino acid modifications and expanding production to an industrial scale. These advancements could have a major impact on synthetic biology and the development of therapeutic proteins, leading to the development of next-generation biopharmaceuticals and engineered enzymes.
About IntegrateRNA
IntegrateRNA is a division of Creative Biogene, and a trusted supplier of high-quality oligonucleotides and custom RNA synthesis services. Catering to academia, pharma, and biotech, the company is supporting research at the cutting edge of molecular biology and therapeutic development.
SHIRLEY, NY, August 31, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ — CD BioGlyco, a company focused on creating custom glycoconjugates, provides research teams with carbohydrate-based molecules that are frequently used in laboratory and biomedical experiments. Using the Glyco™ Synthesis Platform, glycans—either supplied by clients or made in-house—can be connected to proteins, lipids, or other carrier molecules. Each batch is carefully reviewed to confirm the structure and uniformity—though in many cases, small differences may appear, which is not unusual in lab work.
Custom Glycoconjugate Synthesis involves linking glycans—such as mono-, oligo-, or polysaccharides—to proteins, lipids, or other molecules.
In the lab, making these glycoconjugates usually involves a mix of chemical techniques, enzyme-driven steps, or sometimes both. For chemical approaches, labs often rely on activation and coupling methods, while enzyme-based methods tend to use glycosyltransferases or similar enzymes. Researchers can also ask for particular modifications or labels on the saccharides, protein, or lipid, depending on what their experiments require.
When used in experiments, these glycoconjugates let scientists observe how glycans affect cell recognition, signaling, and immune responses. They’re also handy as reagents for preparing materials or studying molecular interactions involving glycans—and in many cases, they make experiments possible that would be hard to do with unmodified molecules.
“This service has slowly become a regular part of what we do in research,” said Anna, a spokesperson for CD BioGlyco. “Well, in many labs, people use a mix of chemical and enzymatic methods. We check each batch several times to make sure it works as intended—and sometimes a few small adjustments are necessary. We really enjoy collaborating with academic teams, especially when it helps tackle new or unexpected research questions.”
For labs interested in learning more about the system and its research applications, detailed information is available at:https://www.bioglyco.com/custom-glycoconjugate-synthesis.html
CD BioGlyco is a sub-brand of CD Bio Group. We offer a full range of glycobiology-related products, analysis, custom synthesis, and design to advance your glycobiology research. We have provided professional and reliable scientific research assistance to customers from all over the world and received a lot of appreciation.
Yongyos Thammawut, Director-General of the Department of Medical Sciences, said the centre was established under the concept “gene testing for risk awareness and health planning.”
It will serve as a one-stop centre for molecular genetics and genomics services, covering diagnosis, research, and disease surveillance.
The initiative focuses on conditions with genetic foundations as well as non-communicable diseases, using advanced genomic technologies for accurate data analysis.
The centre aligns with the Ministry of Public Health’s 2025 policy, “Thais free from diseases and health threats,” and supports the nation’s health economy.
One of the gaming industry’s most well-known veterans has weighed in on the PlayStation 6’s reported upcoming release date, and, perhaps surprisingly, he thinks the next-generation of home consoles can wait.
If you’ve heard of the name Naoki Yoshida, it’s probably pointless for me to rehash his storied history in the video game industry.
If you haven’t though, I highly suggest looking into his body of work. Yoshida has had quite a lengthy and honestly kind of baffling career.
He started out in the early 90s, and hopped around from projects in franchises like Street Fighter and Bomberman, before finally settling down at Square Enix in the early 2000s.
Since then, his career has mostly revolved around the Final Fantasy series. Most notably, Yoshida has been seemingly permanently assigned to work on the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV– and with good reason (said reason being that the game absolutely slaps).
So, how does this all tie into Sony and their next generation of PlayStation consoles? In a recent interview with Feed4Gamers, Yoshida was asked whether or not he thinks that Final Fantasy XIV’s ongoing development will be impacted by the likes of the PlayStation 6.
“Specifically with regards to the recent platforms, they are quite high spec and so it’s easier for us to work with them compared to back in the days. So I don’t think any addition of hardware is a negative in that regard,” Yoshida replied.
“But when I look at things from a gamer’s perspective, I feel that there’s no real need to make new hardware, because I think right now people are happy with the Xbox Series X, the PS5 or the Switch 2. And honestly, from a gamer’s perspective as well, hardware is just expensive to buy.”
Honestly, that’s kind of a based answer.
Really, at this point in time, does anyone like the idea of shelling out god knows how much to buy a PS6? We’re probably talking about somewhere in the realm of £700 to £1,000 here, and it feels like the PlayStation 5 has barely delivered yet.
The current generation of consoles still feel like they have a lot of power left to give to me. So what can a PS6 offer us that we don’t already have? Slightly shinier graphics? A 0.1 second decrease in loading times? Cooler reflections?
I think Yoshida is bang on the money here, quite literally. I’ll stick with my PS5 for now, thank you very much.
Compared with tirzepatide, Wegovy® (semaglutide) 2.4 mg showed a significant 57% greater reduction in the risk of heart attack, stroke or death from any cause, in people with overweight or obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) while on treatment1
Similarly, the study showed a significant 29% reduction in the risk for heart attack, stroke and death from any cause in the Wegovy® users compared with tirzepatide users in all treated people, regardless of any gaps in their treatment1
The findings support growing evidence that the established CV benefit seen with Wegovy® is specific to the semaglutide molecule and therefore cannot be generalized to the GLP-1 or GIP/GLP-1-receptor agonist classes1
PLAINSBORO, N.J., Aug. 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Novo Nordisk today presented data from the STEER real-world study of evidence gathered from actual patient experiences at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2025 in Madrid, Spain. The STEER study investigated the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) with Wegovy® (semaglutide) 2.4 mg compared with tirzepatide treatment in people with overweight or obesity and established CVD without diabetes.1
Compared with tirzepatide, Wegovy® showed a significant 57% greater risk reduction for heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular-related death or death from any cause, in people with overweight or obesity and CVD, while on treatment with no treatment gaps more than 30 days. There were 15 (0.1%) of these cardiovascular events recorded with Wegovy®, and 39 events (0.4%) were recorded with tirzepatide. The average follow-up duration was 3.8 months for the Wegovy® group and 4.3 months for the tirzepatide group.1
In all treated people, regardless of any gaps in their treatment, Wegovy® showed a significant 29% risk reduction for heart attack, stroke and death from any cause compared with tirzepatide (over an average follow-up of 8.3 months for Wegovy® and 8.6 months for tirzepatide). There were 56 (0.5%) of these cardiovascular events recorded with Wegovy®, and 83 events (0.8%) were recorded with tirzepatide.1
“In the STEER study, patients using Wegovy® had greater cardiovascular improvements compared to tirzepatide, indicating that the same CV benefit cannot be generalized across other molecules in the GLP-1 or GIP/GLP-1 classes and may come specifically from the semaglutide molecule,” said Anna Windle, Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, Medical and Regulatory Affairs at Novo Nordisk. “Real-world studies, like STEER, provide us with important insights into how treatments may serve patients outside of controlled clinical trials as we continue to learn more about the benefits of Wegovy® beyond weight management.”
Additionally, in all treated people, regardless of any gaps in their treatment, people treated with Wegovy® experienced fewer events of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular-related death than people treated with tirzepatide.1
It is important to note that semaglutide injection 2.4 mg contains a Boxed Warning for possible thyroid tumors, including cancer and should not be used in those with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) or Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia syndrome type 2 (MEN 2). The most common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, stomach (abdomen) pain, headache, tiredness (fatigue), upset stomach, dizziness, feeling bloated, belching, low blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, gas, stomach flu, heartburn, and runny nose or sore throat.
About obesity and cardiovascular disease Every year, almost 21 million people die from CVD, which is the leading cause of disability and death worldwide.2 Obesity directly leads to cardiovascular morbidity, mortality and hospitalization.3,4 While cardiovascular mortality has decreased over the past two decades, obesity-related cardiovascular deaths have increased significantly, with two in three obesity-related deaths being linked to CVD.5,6
About the real-world STEER study Real-world studies of evidence gathered from actual patient experiences can complement randomized control trials, which are the gold standard for evaluating the safety and efficacy of a treatment.7 Real-world data analyses also have several limitations; while associations can be demonstrated, causal relationships cannot be definitively established. Results may reflect potential unmeasured confounding, the relatively recent approval of both treatments limited follow-up duration, and administrative claims data may be subject to coding inaccuracies.
STEER was a retrospective, observational real-world study, evaluating the efficacy of Wegovy® (semaglutide) 2.4 mg versus tirzepatide in lowering the risk of MACE in US adults with overweight or obesity and established CVD with no prior history of diabetes, with a primary outcome measure of revised 5-point MACE (heart attack, stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, coronary revascularization, and death from any cause) and revised 3-point MACE (heart attack, stroke and death from any cause). Non-revised 5-point and 3-point MACE was also studied, which included cardiovascular-related death rather than death from any cause.1
The study included people from the US Komodo Research database (January 1, 2016 to January 31, 2025) aged ≥45 years and started treatment with Wegovy® or tirzepatide on or after May 13, 2022. Each treatment group comprised 10,625 people. To ensure both groups were comparable, researchers used propensity score matching to compare Wegovy® users and tirzepatide users with similar characteristics. After matching, characteristics were well-balanced between the treatment groups.1
The main analysis included all people who started treatment, regardless of any gaps in their therapy, while a sensitivity analysis evaluated outcomes only in people who did not have any gaps in their treatment lasting more than 30 consecutive days.1
About the SELECT trial and SCORE real-world study SELECT was a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of Wegovy® (semaglutide) 2.4 mg versus placebo as an adjunct to standard of care for the prevention of MACE in people with overweight or obesity and established CVD with no prior history of diabetes. People included in the trial were aged ≥45 years with a body mass index (BMI) of ≥27 kg/m2.8
The primary objective of the SELECT trial was to demonstrate the superiority of Wegovy® compared to placebo with respect to reducing the incidence of 3-point MACE consisting of cardiovascular death, non-fatal heart attack (myocardial infarction) or non-fatal stroke.8
SCORE was a real-world study in the US that analyzed MACE outcomes among Wegovy® (semaglutide) 2.4 mg users and non-users in real-world clinical practice, who met similar inclusion criteria as in the SELECT trial and were aged ≥45 years with overweight or obesity and established CVD without diabetes.9
About Wegovy® WEGOVY® (semaglutide) injection 2.4 mg is an injectable prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity.10
to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events such as death, heart attack, or stroke in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight
that may help adults and children aged 12 years and older with obesity, or some adults with excess weight (overweight) who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off
Wegovy® contains semaglutide and should not be used with other semaglutide-containing products or other GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines.
It is not known if Wegovy® is safe and effective:
to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events (death, heart attack, or stroke) in children under 18 years
for the treatment of long-term weight loss in children under 12 years
About Novo Nordisk Novo Nordisk is a leading global healthcare company that’s been making innovative medicines to help people with diabetes lead longer, healthier lives for more than 100 years. This heritage has given us experience and capabilities that also enable us to drive change to help people defeat other serious chronic diseases such as obesity, rare blood, and endocrine disorders. We remain steadfast in our conviction that the formula for lasting success is to stay focused, think long-term, and do business in a financially, socially, and environmentally responsible way. With a US presence spanning 40 years, Novo Nordisk US is headquartered in New Jersey and employs over 10,000 people throughout the country across 12 manufacturing, R&D and corporate locations in eight states plus Washington DC. For more information, visit novonordisk-us.com, Facebook, Instagram, and X.
Novo Nordisk is committed to the responsible use of our semaglutide-containing medicines which represent distinct products with different indications, dosages, prescribing information, titration schedules, and delivery forms. These products are not interchangeable and should not be used outside of their approved indications. Learn more at semaglutide.com.
References
Wilson L, Zhao Z, Divino V, et al. Semaglutide is associated with lower risk of cardiovascular events compared with tirzepatide in patients with overweight or obesity and ASCVD and without diabetes in routine clinical practice. Oral presentation presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2025; 29 August–01 September 2025; IFEMA Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
World Heart Federation. World Heart Report 2023: Confronting the World’s Number One Killer. Available at: https://world-heart-federation.org/wp-content/uploads/World-Heart-Report-2023.pdf. Last accessed: July 2025.
Haidar A and Horwich T. Obesity, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and Cardiovascular Disease. Curr Cardiol Rep. 2023;25:1565–1571.
Zizza C, Herring AH, Stevens J, et al. Length of Hospital Stays Among Obese Individuals. Am J Public Health. 2004;94:1587–1591.
Raisi-Estabragh Z, Kobo O, Mieres JH, et al. Racial Disparities in Obesity-Related Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States: Temporal Trends From 1999 to 2020. J Am Heart Assoc. 2023;12: e028409.
Collaborators GBDO, Afshin A, Forouzanfar MH, et al. Health Effects of Overweight and Obesity in 195 Countries over 25 Years. N Engl J Med. 2017;377:13–27.
Blonde L, Khunti K, Harris SB, et al. Interpretation and Impact of Real-World Clinical Data for the Practicing Clinician. Adv Ther. 2018;35:1763–1774.
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Zhao Z, Song J, Faurby M, et al. Lower Risk of MACE and All-Cause Death in Patients Initiated on Semaglutide 2.4 mg in Routine Clinical Care: Results from the SCORE Study (Semaglutide Effects on Cardiovascular Outcomes in People with Overweight or Obesity in the Real World). Moderated poster presentation presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session & Expo 2025; 29–31 March 2025; McCormick Place Convention Center, Chicago, US. Presentation 947-13.
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