Heart disease drug found to preserve kidney functio, particularly in diabetes

A heart drug has been found to help reduce kidney disease in those with heart failure, especially benefitting those with diabetes.
Entresto is available in Europe as a treatment for adults with heart failure, a known complication to affect people with diabetes. Kidney disease, meanwhile, is believed to affect one out of four adults with diabetes, but maintaining good blood glucose control and eating a healthy diet can reduce the risk of complications.
In the PARADIGM-HF study, thought to be the largest ever clinical trial carried out on heart failure, Entresto significantly slowed the rate of kidney decline when compared to Enalapril, a blood pressure medication.
In a subgroup of patients with heart failure and diabetes, the magnitude of benefit on kidney health was shown to be twice as high.
Shreeram Aradhye, chief medical officer and global head of Medical Affairs at Novartis Pharmaceutical, the drugmakers of Entresto, said: “These results suggest that in addition to the established benefits on heart failure, Entresto treatment also helps to preserve kidney function. This is important because impaired kidney function is associated with poorer outcomes in patients with heart failure.
“The benefit is particularly significant for people with chronic heart failure who also have diabetes, which is an independent risk factor for kidney damage.”
The findings suggested that Entresto, designed to be taken twice a day, reduced the chance of a dying from a cardiovascular-related condition by 20%. The drug also reduced admittance to hospital because of heart failure by 21% and the risk of dying from any cause by 16%.
The most recent findings “add to the growing evidence that Entresto has important clinical benefits for heart failure patients beyond improving their cardiovascular outcomes,” Novartis said.
The results of the trial have been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart failure (JACC-HF).