Dr George Bakris Discusses Next Steps for Finerenone

If results from FIGARO-DKD are as positive as those of FIDELIO-DKD, the field will work aggressively to get the message out, said George Bakris, MD, professor of medicine and director of the American Heart Association Comprehensive Hypertension Center at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Transcript:

What are the next steps for finerenone and future research into non-steroidal selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists?

I think now, one of the things that we're focused on, is to get the message out. We do this in this European Heart Journal, that finerenone is that your mother's spironolactone. That's number one. Number 2, the risk and the fear of hyperkalemia is nowhere near that of what most physicians would think about when they're thinking about this class of agents, because it's a different chemistry. Again, back to the European Heart Journal to really get the full details. In addition, we're waiting for the FIGARO results. Once we have the FIGARO of results, and if they are as positive as the FIDELIO results, we can have a whole package to put together and better answer some of the questions that you're posing right now. In addition, there are a number of studies being proposed to look at biomarkers, to look at specifics in the database, that would help explain some of these factors. Plus, there are basic science studies going on looking at this in the context of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT-2s), but also in combining them with SGLT-2s to look at this because clearly, you can make a very strong argument for a complimentary benefit. The complimentary benefit is because you have one having metabolic and hemodynamic effects, and the other anti-inflammatory effects. Actually, both have anti-inflammatory effects. It does make sense that there would at least be some additivity there. And we just need some evidence to support that. That's all.

Do you have any final thoughts you'd like to share?

I think that the audience needs to be aware that we now have another bullet that we can put in the gun to slow diabetic kidney disease progression. The good news is we know this, the bad news is we don't know how powerful this is yet, because there are a lot of unanswered questions. The other thing is, it's not on the market yet, and probably will not be until the first quarter of next year. However, the good news is next year we will also have the FIGARO results. And if those are as positive, we will definitely be aggressively moving forward with things that we can add to the current armamentarium to really get a marked slowing of diabetic kidney disease progression. So I'm very optimistic and hopefully the audience will be as well.