Diabetes Drug to Be Tested in Heart Failure

A diabetes drug may have benefits for people with chronic heart failure. Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company have announced plans to investigate the use of the diabetes medicine Jardiance for heart failure.

There are plans for 2 outcome trials, targeted to begin within the next 12 months. The trials will enroll people with chronic heart failure both with and without type 2 diabetes.

Jardiance has demonstrated a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular death in a dedicated outcomes trial for people with type 2 diabetes who were at high risk of cardiovascular events.

“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 Jardiance can also provide heart failure benefits,” Professor Hans-Juergen Woerle, global vice president of medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim, said in a statement.

The EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial found Jardiance reduced cardiovascular death by 38% and reduced the risk of hospitalization for heart failure in the participants by 35%. People with diabetes are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop heart failure. Overall, 5.7 million people in the US have chronic heart failure.

“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,” said Javed Butler, MD, MPH, of Stony Brook University Hospital.