A big study (SOUL) showed that taking the pill form of semaglutide cuts the chance of heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular death by about 14% in people with type 2 diabetes who already have heart or kidney disease. The benefit was seen no matter if they were also on other heart‑protective drugs.

Subcutaneous glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) have been shown to reduce risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) for patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) who have or are at high risk of cardiovascular disease, but the evaluation of cardiovascular efficacy of oral GLP-1 RAs has yet to be performed. This article reviews results from the SOUL (Semaglutide Cardiovascular Outcomes) trial, whose aim was to assess the cardiovascular benefit in oral semaglutide in high-risk individuals. SOUL was a randomized, double blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled superiority trial that enrolled 9,650 adults with T2DM who had established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), or both, to receive a maximum daily dose of 14 mg oral semaglutide or placebo. The primary outcome in this study was a composite of time to first CV death, non-fatal MI, or non-fatal stroke. In prespecified secondary analyses, treatment groups were analyzed for an expanded list of CV, CKD, PAD, and HF outcomes. Over a median follow-up of 49.5 months, the risk for MACE was significantly lower in the oral semaglutide compared with the placebo group (HR 0.86; 95% CI, 0.77; 0.96; p = 0.006), and these results were consistent across subgroup analysis, including by sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor (SGLT2i) drug use. Oral semaglutide reduces the risk of MACE in high-risk patients with T2DM.