In an interview with Pharmacy Times, Biykem Bozkurt, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and senior dean at Baylor College of Medicine and principal investigator of the SYNCHRONIZE-CVOT trial, discussed the cardiometabolic findings beyond weight loss that stood out to her in SYNCHRONIZE-CVOT (NCT06077864), the phase 3 cardiovascular outcomes trial of survodutide presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Survodutide reduced systolic blood pressure and waist circumference versus placebo at week 72.
- Bozkurt reported favorable changes in hemoglobin A1C, lipids, and hs-CRP alongside weight loss, giving pharmacists a broader set of markers than body weight to discuss with patients.
- The trial met noninferiority for 5-point MACE with no increase in events. That supports cardiovascular safety in adults with obesity and established cardiovascular disease or elevated risk, but it does not show a cardiovascular benefit.
Bozkurt highlighted a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure from baseline to week 72 compared with placebo. She called this an important finding because hypertension and uncontrolled blood pressure are common problems in individuals at risk for cardio-kidney-metabolic and liver disease. Survodutide also produced meaningful reductions in waist circumference vs placebo, which she said supports the idea that visceral adiposity was effectively changed. Bozkurt reported improvements in hemoglobin A1C among patients with diabetes and prevention of diabetes in participants without diabetes at baseline, along with significant improvements in low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels.
She also pointed to a significant reduction in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, suggesting improvement in inflammatory biomarkers relevant to cardiovascular disease. Taken together with significant weight loss versus placebo, she said, these findings indicate that the quality of weight loss, not just its magnitude, was favorably affected. On the primary end point, survodutide achieved noninferiority for 5-point major adverse cardiovascular events, a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke, revascularization for ischemia, and heart failure events, with no increase in events. According to Bozkurt, the results support the safety of survodutide in individuals living with obesity who have established cardiovascular disease or increased cardiovascular risk.
