In September 2015, researchers presented data at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) meeting in Stockholm indicating that a diabetes drug for the first time offered cardiac benefits in addition to lowering blood glucose. The drug, empagliflozin (Jardiance, Boehringer Ingelheim/Lilly), is a member of the sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors drug class.
In the EMPA-REG Outcome study, empagliflozin showed a 38% relative risk reduction in cardiovascular mortality and a 32% risk reduction in all-cause mortality, compared with placebo. The type 2 diabetes patients being studied had established cardiovascular disease and were already being treated with statins, ACE inhibitors, and aspirin.
Empagliflozin was approved in March 2014 in Europe and later that year by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), becoming the third SGLT-2 inhibitor available after canagliflozin and dapagliflozin. Since the presentation of the EMPA-REG findings, experts have debated how clinicians might respond. One expert outlined her position in a Medscape commentary, “How EMPA-REG Has Changed My Practice.”
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Cite this: Reader Poll: Are You Treating More Diabetes Patients With Empagliflozin? - Medscape - Jan 22, 2016.
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