Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly are to conduct two outcome trials investigating the diabetes medicine empagliflozin (Jardiance) for the treatment of people with chronic heart failure. The trials are targeted to begin within the next 12 months and are planned to enrol people with chronic heart failure both with and without type 2 diabetes.
Empagliflozin was the first diabetes treatment to demonstrate a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular death in a dedicated cardiovascular outcomes trial. This was demonstrated on top of standard of care (including glucose-lowering agents and cardiovascular drugs) in people with type 2 diabetes at high risk of cardiovascular events. In addition to reducing cardiovascular death by 38%, the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial also showed that empagliflozin reduced the risk of hospitalisation for heart failure in people with type 2 diabetes at high risk of cardiovascular events by 35%. These results led to the planned trials.
“The EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial demonstrated that Jardiance reduces the risk of cardiovascular death in diabetes patients at high cardiovascular risk, and we now look forward to exploring whether empagliflozin can also provide heart failure benefits,” says Hans-Juergen Woerle, global vice president of Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim.
“One in two people with heart failure die within five years of diagnosis, so there is currently a compelling need for an effective therapy to treat those suffering from this condition,” says Javed Butler, cardiologist, Stony Brook University Hospital (Stony Brook, USA).
