Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly to assess Jardiance in heart failure

Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly are to study their approved diabetes medicine Jardiance for the treatment of people with chronic heart failure.

The companies will carry out two outcome trials, set to commence within the next 12 months, and will be looking to enrol people with chronic heart failure both with and without type 2 diabetes.

Jardiance is the first diabetes treatment to demonstrate a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular death in a dedicated cardiovascular outcomes trial, when taken alongside the standard of care, in diabetic patients at high risk of heart health events.

In the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, the drug reduced the rate of cardiovascular death by 38 percent, as well as reducing the risk of hospitalisation for heart failure.

Professor Hans-Juergen Woerle, global vice-president for medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "The EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial demonstrated that Jardiance reduces the risk of cardiovascular death in diabetes patients at high cardiovascular risk, and we now look forward to exploring whether Jardiance can also provide heart failure benefits."

The drug has been available for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in Europe since 2014.