THE gliflozines (ou SGLT2 inhibitors) are anti-diabetes drugs that arrived on the market a few years ago. In this category we find dapagliflozin (Forxiga*, AstraZeneca), canagliflozin (Invokana*, Janssen) and empagliflozin (Jardiance*, Boehringer Ingelheim/Lilly). Unlike other diabetes treatments, these medications – which increase the elimination of blood glucose through urine – are taken orally.
A promising new class of drugs
The French Federation of Diabetics (FFD) explains that these “molecules are prescribed in cases where the reference oral antidiabetics (metformin, sulfonamides for example) for the management of type 2 diabetes associated with hygienic and dietary measures are no longer sufficient or are poorly tolerated to guarantee glycemic balance but also more specifically to prevent a certain number of complications linked to diabetes (notably renal for canaglifozin or cardiovascular)”.
Effective in regulating blood sugar, gliflozins are also capable of treating heart failure and have been approved for this type of prescription for four years in Europe. But until then, this therapeutic approach was based solely on clinical studies. This new scientific publication is based on data collected directly from patients, in other words, people with more varied profiles than in clinical studies. The goal: to confirm (or not) the results previous ones.
Heart failure: an encouraging study
The researchers of the State Serum Institute from Copenhagen, Karolinska Institutet of Stockholm and the University of Copenhagen followed for three years more than 20,000 patients over the age of 45, suffering fromheart failure. The results of their work published in the British Medical Journal confirm that SGLT2 inhibitors significantly reduce the risk of mortality in heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction. “Use of SGLT-2 inhibitors has been associated with risk of all-cause mortality 25% lowerwhich confirms their effectiveness in current clinical practice”, they conclude.
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