For people who are overweight or obese, have heart disease but not diabetes, the biggest things that decide whether semaglutide is worth the cost are how well it prevents death and how much the drug itself costs.

For people who are overweight or obese, have heart disease but not diabetes, taking a weekly semaglutide shot might help them live healthier, longer lives — and it would cost about $73,000 for each extra year of good-quality life, according to computer modeling.

If you're obese and have heart disease but not diabetes, taking semaglutide might lower your chances of having a serious heart problem by 20%.

Even if you don’t have diabetes, if you’re overweight and have heart disease, a weekly shot of semaglutide can cut your risk of heart attack or stroke by 1 in 5 — and this benefit starts before you lose much weight.

A weekly injection of semaglutide (2.4 mg) helps lower the risk of serious heart problems like heart attack, stroke, or heart-related death by 20% in people over 45 who have heart disease and are overweight, but don’t have diabetes, compared to a fake treatment.

If the price of semaglutide is cut in half, it might become a good value for treating people with heart disease who are overweight or obese—even if they don’t have diabetes—because it could add healthy years of life for less than $50,000 per year of quality life gained.