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Compound monograph · evidence extract

Semaglutide in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity — evidence extract

The Institute's graded assessment of Semaglutide for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity, with the contributing trials and the domain-by-domain certainty reasoning.

Document identifier
CEI-MN-001/EV-HFPEF
Series
Evidence extract
Version
1.1
Published
16 Sep 2023
Last reviewed
16 Aug 2024
Next review
16 Aug 2026
Identifier
10.71829/cei.mono.1
Certainty
Moderate
Cycle
2023 Q3

§1Evidence extract: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity

§1.1Question and anchor outcome

Population
Symptomatic heart failure with a left ventricular ejection fraction of 50 % or above, occurring with obesity as a dominant phenotypic driver.
Intervention
Semaglutide, subcutaneous once weekly; oral once daily with a permeation enhancer (see separate monograph)
Comparator
As used in each contributing trial; reported per trial rather than pooled across comparator types
Anchor outcome
Change in Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire clinical summary score

Additional outcomes the Institute extracts for this indication: Change in six-minute walk distance; Composite of cardiovascular death and worsening heart-failure events; Change in NT-proBNP.

§1.2Contributing trials

Table 1. Trials contributing to the assessment of Semaglutide in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity.

TrialPhaseDesignRandomisedDurationYear
STEP-HFpEF3Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled52952 weeks2023
STEP-HFpEF-DM3Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled61652 weeks2024

§1.3Certainty assessment

Certainty assessment by domainDowngrading decision recorded for each certainty domain.Certainty domainNo concernSeriousVery seriousEffect on ratingRisk of biasno downgradeInconsistencydowngrade one levelIndirectnessno downgradeImprecisionno downgradePublication biasno downgradeTotal downgrading: 1 levelModerate certainty
Figure 2. Domain-by-domain certainty assessment for Semaglutide in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and obesity. The starting rating for a body of randomised evidence is high; each serious concern reduces it by one level and each very serious concern by two.

Table 2. Reasoning recorded against each certainty domain.

DomainRatingReasoning
Risk of biasNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
InconsistencySeriousEstimates vary in magnitude across contributing trials beyond what chance would produce.
IndirectnessNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
ImprecisionNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
Publication biasNo concernNo serious concern identified in this domain.
Overall rating: Moderate certainty. The true effect is likely to be close to the estimate, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different. Further research is likely to have an important impact on confidence in the estimate.

§1.4What this extract does not establish

References cited on this page

References are numbered in order of first citation in this document. Each superscript in the text links to its entry below.

  1. Wilding JPH, Batterham RL, Calanna S, Davies M, Van Gaal LF, Lingvay I, McGowan BM, Rosenstock J, Tran MTD, Wadden TA, Wharton S, Yokote K, Zeuthen N, Kushner RF. Once-weekly semaglutide in adults with overweight or obesity. New England Journal of Medicine 2021;384(11):989–1002. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2032183 · PMID 33567185
  2. Davies M, Færch L, Jeppesen OK, Pakseresht A, Pedersen SD, Perreault L, Rosenstock J, Shimomura I, Viljoen A, Wadden TA, Lingvay I. Semaglutide 2·4 mg once a week in adults with overweight or obesity, and type 2 diabetes (STEP 2): a randomised, double-blind, double-dummy, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. The Lancet 2021;397(10278):971–984. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00213-0 · PMID 33667417
  3. Wadden TA, Bailey TS, Billings LK, Davies M, Frias JP, Koroleva A, Lingvay I, O’Neil PM, Rubino DM, Skovgaard D, Wallenstein SOR, Garvey WT. Effect of subcutaneous semaglutide vs placebo as an adjunct to intensive behavioral therapy on body weight in adults with overweight or obesity: the STEP 3 randomized clinical trial. JAMA 2021;325(14):1403–1413. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.1831 · PMID 33625476

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