Healthy Returns: Wegovy may reduce knee pain in patients with a type of arthritis and obesity

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The “Wegovy” brand slimming syringe is sold in the Achat pharmacy in Mitte. The “Wegovy” slimming syringe has been available in Germany for a year.

Jens Kalaene | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health-care news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

Happy Thursday! New research showing additional health benefits of the weight loss drug Wegovy seems to crop up every week.

This time around, Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster treatment helped reduce knee pain in patients with a type of arthritis and obesity, according to research published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study was funded by Novo Nordisk, which is conducting several studies on the other potential treatment uses of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy.

The results of the 68-week trial could be a big deal for the Danish drugmaker: It could pave the way for regulatory approval of semaglutide for osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease that causes the cartilage and bone in your joints to break down over time.

It would be yet another expansion of the accepted uses for the blockbuster drug.

It’s the most common type of arthritis and affects around 33 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The condition is not a regular part of aging, but it is common among adults 45 and above.

So, how is the condition related to obesity? The risk of developing the condition is four times higher in people with obesity, the trial’s lead study author Dr. Henning Bliddal, director and research professor at The Parker Institute in Denmark, said in a statement.

Losing weight can help reduce knee osteoarthritis symptoms, but adherence to those lifestyle changes can be challenging, Bliddal said. There also aren’t very many other effective treatments for the condition.

“There is a significant need for non-surgical and sustainable treatment options for those living with obesity-related osteoarthritis,” Bliddal added.

Let’s dive into more details on the trial.

It included roughly 400 patients with knee osteoarthritis. Participants had an average age of 56, and roughly 80% of the cohort were women, who experience osteoarthritis at higher rates than men do.

People either took a weekly injection of semaglutide or a placebo for 68 weeks. Everyone also received guidance on how to maintain reduced-calorie diets and incorporate exercise into their daily lives.

Patients with osteoarthritis who dieted, exercised and took semaglutide lost more weight and reported a greater reduction in knee pain than those who lost weight with diet and exercise alone. By the end of the trial, people who took semaglutide lost an average of nearly 14% of their body weight, or around 33 pounds, compared to just 3% among those who got a placebo.

Changes in body weight were also accompanied by reductions in pain, which was measured using a specific index that scores it on a scale 0 to 100. On average, patients in the trial started with an average pain score of 70.9.

Those who took semaglutide reported a significant reduction in pain – an average drop of about 42 points — while those in the placebo group had an average drop of 27.5 points.

But it’s unclear if semaglutide will have that benefit for all patients, such as those who are mildly obese or overweight. Most of the people enrolled in the trial had a high BMI, so researchers will have to replicate the findings in other populations.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at annikakim.constantino@nbcuni.com.

Medicare Advantage is now a battleground on two fronts

Private Medicare Advantage plans have become a big source of conflict between the major insurers — and it’s now playing out on two fronts.

For one, they’re battling the government over stricter quality ratings that are creating profit headwinds at a time when plans are experiencing higher medical costs from their senior members.

That’s creating a second headache: A battle royale between the big MA players and hospitals, which is where much of the higher spending is being incurred.

UnitedHealth is fighting on both fronts, suing the government over the star quality ratings downgrade on its plans, while at the same time raising a red flag about hospitals it says are “aggressively” upcoding patients and in turn raising medical costs.

During their respective earnings calls, hospital operators Community Health, HCA and Tenet Health all touched on what they called more “aggressive” denials from some payers.

The rate negotiations are now getting so bitter that more hospitals are threatening not to accept Medicare Advantage plans from some carriers.

With more than half of seniors on private Medicare Advantage plans now, this combative trend could create increasing disruption to their coverage.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Bertha at bertha.coombs@nbcuni.com.

Latest in health-care technology: Change Healthcare breach hit at least 100 million Americans

UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare broke a grim record last week: It has officially suffered the largest health-care data breach that’s ever been reported to federal regulators.

At least 100 million Americans were affected by the Change Healthcare cyberattack, according to an updated figure published to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights’ breach portal. The previous record was set by Anthem in 2015 when hackers compromised data from 78.8 million patients.

The figure is roughly in line with the estimate that UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty shared with lawmakers in May, when he guessed that around one-third of Americans had been impacted. The company began mailing written notices to affected individuals in late July.

Change Healthcare offers payment and revenue cycle management tools for medical providers and payers, as well as other solutions such as electronic prescription software. In February, UnitedHealth disclosed that a cyber threat actor breached part of the company’s information technology network.

UnitedHealth disconnected the affected systems when the threat was detected, and the disruption caused a ripple of fallout across the U.S. health-care sector. Many doctors were temporarily left without a way to fill prescriptions or get paid for their services, and some providers took thousands of dollars out of savings to keep their doors open.

In the months following the breach, UnitedHealth paid a $22 million ransom to the hackers, worked to bring systems back online and confirmed that files containing personal information were compromised in the attack.

The exact type of data that was exposed in the breach varies from person to person, according to UnitedHealth’s website. That means a mix of patients’ contact information, health insurance information, medical records, billing and payment information could have been accessed.

UnitedHealth is offering two years of free identity theft protections credit monitoring for individuals who think they were impacted. Patients can contact a dedicated call center to inquire about these offerings or speak with a clinician who can provide emotional support services, the company said.

Patients should also watch for suspicious activity across their tax returns and explanation of benefits, bank and credit card statements, according to UnitedHealth’s website.