Reduction seen in risk for clinically important kidney outcomes and death from cardiovascular causes
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, May 31, 2024 (HealthDay News) — For patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, semaglutide reduces the risk for clinically important kidney outcomes and death from cardiovascular causes, according to a study published online May 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual European Renal Association Congress, held from May 23 to 26 in Stockholm.
Vlado Perkovic, M.B., B.S., Ph.D., from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and colleagues randomly assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease to receive subcutaneous semaglutide (1.0 mg weekly) or placebo (1,767 and 1,766 participants, respectively).
Participants were followed for a median of 3.4 years after recommendation of early trial cessation at a prespecified interim analysis. The researchers found that the risk for a primary outcome event (major kidney disease events, a composite of the onset of kidney failure, at least a 50 percent reduction in the estimated glomerular filtration rate from baseline, or death from kidney-related or cardiovascular causes) was significantly lower in the semaglutide group (331 versus 410 first events; hazard ratio, 0.76). Similar results were seen for a composite of the kidney-specific components of the primary outcome and for death from cardiovascular causes (hazard ratios, 0.79 and 0.71, respectively). All confirmatory secondary outcomes favored semaglutide.
“These benefits reflect important clinical effects on kidney, cardiovascular, and survival outcomes among high-risk patients, particularly given the reassuring safety findings, and support a therapeutic role for semaglutide in this population,” the authors write.
Several authors disclosed ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including Novo Nordisk, which manufactures semaglutide and funded the study.
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