Last month we discussed an historic moment in diabetes. For the first time ever, clinical trials demonstrated that a drug, Boehringer and Lilly's Jardiance, which lowers blood glucose by a novel mechanism, reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Prior to Jardiance, all existing type 2 diabetes drugs were based on a biomarker reduction of blood glucose with the assumption that this would translate into improved cardiovascular outcomes. Yet until Jardiance, this was never shown clinically.
In August, Boehringer and Lilly the co developers of Jardiance issued a statement that stated that clinical outcomes were improved, but the data were not given.
Last week, in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, the details of the EMPA-REG OUTCOME clinical trial data were revealed. Patients who took Jardiance had a 38 percent reduction in cardiovascular deaths.