diabetes
A person receives a test for diabetes during Care Harbor LA free medical clinic in Los Angeles, California September 11, 2014. Reuters/Mario Anzuoni

A study conducted to assess the effect of Jardiance or empagliflozin on diabetes patients has shown that it effectively reduces the risk of hospitalisation for cardiovascular death or heart failure. The results of the study were presented in behalf of Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company.

According to the sub-analysis data presented on Nov. 9 at the 2015 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association in Orlando, US, Jardiance reduced the rate of hospitalization by 39 per cent compared with the placebo. During the study, Jardiance was included in the standard care of 7,000 patients from across the globe with Type 2 diabetes who are at a greater risk of hospitalisation because of CV events.

“Cardiovascular disease, including heart failure, is the leading cause of death associated with diabetes,” said Prof. Silvio Inzucchi of the Yale School of Medicine in a press release. “People with diabetes are two- to three-times more likely to develop heart failure than those individuals without diabetes. We need treatments that can help reduce the high rates of heart failure—and the resulting hospitalisations and deaths—in this population.”

Prof. Hans-Juergen Woerle of the Boehringer Ingelheim said that there is no glucose-lowering drug known so far that has successfully reduced the rate of hospitalisation due to heart failure in a cardiovascular outcomes study. Woerle further said that the success of Jardiance shows that advance research should continue to figure out different ways to mitigate and manage the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes.

Jardiance is a selective sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor used as an oral medication for treatment of people with type 2 diabetes in the United States and Europe. The once-a-day medication works by inhibiting the reabsorption of glucose in the kidneys.

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