Dive Brief:
- The American Diabetes Association's (ADA) newly-released 2017 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes have added in a recommendation for Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim's Jardiance (empagliflozin) and Novo Nordisk's Victoza (liraglutide) as glucose-lowering medications for people with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
- This follows the Food and Drug Administration's approval of Jardiance for reducing the risk of cardiovascular death in adults with diabetes. Both drugs have shown in studied to have cardio-protective benefits.
- People with diabetes are twice to four times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease compared with non-diabetics. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with diabetes.
Dive Insight:
Earlier this month, Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim snagged a key extra approval for Jardiance (empagliflozin), their type 2 diabetes drug, giving it the competitive advantage of being able to offer an agent that could reduce the risk of cardiovascular death in adults. The inclusion in the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) 2017 Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes follows on from this approval and will provide an additional leg up for the drug in this highly competitive market.
"Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly commend the ADA's commitment to addressing the critical connection between type 2 diabetes and increased cardiovascular risk," said Thomas Seck, VP of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs, Primary Care at Boehringer Ingelheim. "These important new recommendations recognize the latest scientific evidence and highlight the role of Jardiance for reducing the risk of cardiovascular death in people with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease and represent an important advance for patient care."
The 2017 ADA Standards of Care are meant to emphasize the role comorbidities like cardiovascular disease play in the life and health of patients with diabetes.
"The importance of assessing comorbidities (other illnesses a patient has in addition to diabetes) as part of a comprehensive patient-centered evaluation is also highlighted in the newly released Standards," wrote the ADA.
The additional approval for Jardiance was based on results from the EMPA-REG study, and could boost the entire class of SGLT-2 targeting drugs. However, the ADA is a little more cautious, saying that "more research is needed to confirm if the heart benefits are a class effect or if the benefits persist in patients without established cardiovascular disease."
Studies of Jardiance have shown that the drug reduces the risk of progressive kidney disease as well as cardiovascular disease, and AstraZeneca is showing interest in this area, with two Phase 3b studies of Farxiga (dapagliflozin), its marketed SGLT-2 inhibitor, in people with and without diabetes.