[ad_1]
AstraZeneca’s blockbuster diabetes drug Farxiga led to
significant reductions in the risk of hospitalization and death in
people with all types of heart failure, according to study data
released on Saturday, opening the door to a substantial increase in
patients who could benefit, Trend reports citing Al
Arabiya.
The drug belongs to a class of medicines called SGLT2 inhibitors
that were initially approved to treat type 2 diabetes. Since then,
the drugs have been shown to benefit patients with chronic kidney
and heart disease and prevent heart attacks.
Farxiga is the first heart failure medication to show mortality
benefit across all forms of heart failure, the company said.
Detailed data from a study called ‘DELIVER’ evaluating Farxiga
in patients with a form of heart failure characterized by mildly
reduced or preserved ejection fraction was presented at the
European Society of Cardiology congress in Barcelona. Ejection
fraction measures the heart’s ability to pump oxygen-rich blood
into the body.
Farxiga met the study’s primary goal, inducing a statistically
significant reduction in the risk of hear-related death, heart
failure hospitalization and urgent heart failure visits by 18
percent.
Assuming regulators endorse broader heart failure use based on
this data, Farxiga’s addressable patient population will jump by 50
percent, said Ruud Dobber, who leads AstraZeneca’s biopharma
business.
Eli Lilly and Co and Boehringer Ingelheim’s rival drug Jardiance
performed similarly in study involving similar patients last
year.
A pooled analysis of DELIVER and another trial involving about
11,000 heart failure patients combined showed Farxiga reduced the
risk of death from cardiovascular causes – including heart attacks
– by 14 percent, and death from any cause by 10 percent. The drug
also cut the risk of hospital admissions for heart failure by close
to a third.
Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle becomes unable to
pump blood as efficiently as it should, and can cause a range of
serious health problems and death. Of the estimated 64 million
heart failure patients globally, roughly half have reduced ejection
fraction, which is equal to or less than 40 percent.
The remainder have mildly reduced or preserved ejection
fraction.
Irrespective of low or high ejection fraction, the benefit of
Farxiga was consistent, said Pardeep Jhund, professor of cardiology
at the University of Glasgow who worked on the analysis.
Despite many available heart failure treatments, patients
continue to have a poor prognosis, so initiating therapy instead of
waiting for tests to determine ejection fraction is key. This
analysis shows that there is no need to wait, Jhund said.
It also addresses doubts that patients at the higher ejection
fraction (EF) spectrum – with an EF of around 65 percent or higher
– would not derive the same benefit, concerns that arose with
Jardiance trial data.
Last year, Farxiga generated just over $3 billion in sales. In
2022, it has had sales of about $1 billion each quarter.
This analysis pushes SGLT2 inhibitors to the forefront of heart
failure therapy, said study co-author Scott Solomon, professor of
medicine at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s
Hospital.
Doctors will likely choose Farxiga or Jardiance based on
availability and cost, which will “probably be more important than
any potential differences between those therapies,” he said.
[ad_2]
Source link