ESC: Study says GLP-1s treat heart failure AND cut emissions

Add a beneficial impact on climate change to the long list of benefits being attributed to GLP-1 agonist medicines.

An unusual study presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress in Madrid today has found that treating heart failure patients with GLP-1s not only improved clinical outcomes, but also reduced greenhouse gas emissions, medical waste, and water usage.

The researchers behind the analysis – led by Dr Sarju Ganatra of Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in the US, who is president of environmental non-profit Sustain Health Solutions – drew on data from four placebo-controlled trials of GLP-1s in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a hard-to-treat form of the disease.

Aside from reducing the risk of worsening heart failure – with 54 cases out of 1,914 patients treated with GLP-1 agonists versus 86 of 1,829 in the placebo cohort – they calculated that the annual amount of carbon dioxide emissions per patient was reduced from 9.7kg to 9.45kg, mainly stemming from a reduced need for inpatient stays and outpatient visits, but also due to lower daily calorie intake.

That 0.25kg difference may seem small, but Dr Ganatra told the ESC that "when this figure is scaled up to the millions of patients eligible for these therapies, it adds up to over 2 billion kilograms of CO2-equivalent saved."

That is equivalent to 20,000 full-capacity Boeing 747 long-haul flights, or city-wide emissions from Brussels over three months, according to the researchers, who believe this is one of the first studies to quantify the environmental and pharmacological benefits of treatment at the same time.

To offset 2 billion kg with tree planting, for example, would require around 30 million new trees to be grown over a decade.

"By combining clinical trial data with environmental life cycle assessment metrics, we offer a new lens to evaluate the full impact of prescribing decisions," according to Ganatra.

"We also show that it is possible for medical treatments to deliver dual benefits - better health for patients and a healthier planet"

The healthcare sector is responsible for nearly 5% of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and many pharma companies have acknowledged the need to disclose the carbon footprint of their medicines, amid rising public scrutiny of the environmental credentials of big business.

"The next step for this research is to validate our modelling with real-world emissions data and clinical outcomes," Ganatra told ESC delegates.

"In the future, we hope that environmental impact will be integrated into clinical trial designs, drug regulatory processes, and formulary decisions to ensure health systems align with planetary health goals."

Photo by Matthias Heyde on Unsplash