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The type 2 diabetes drug Forxiga (dapagliflozin) could help to protect against heart failure, researchers have said. Forxiga is an SGLT2 inhibitor which helps lower blood glucose levels by enabling more glucose to be filtered out of the blood. It is usually prescribed alongside diet and exercise. Now, in this US study the drug has also been shown to reduce hospitalisation for heart failure by 27% compared to those who took placebo. Lead author Dr Stephen Wiviott, a cardiovascular medicine specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said the findings "build upon two other recent trials of SGLT2 inhibitors and shows that these drugs robustly and consistently improve heart and renal outcomes in a broad population of patients with diabetes". The research involved more than 17,000 people aged 40 or older who all had type 2 diabetes. Almost 7,000 participants had heart disease and more than 10,000 had several heart disease risk factors. Forxiga did not reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular-related death, but healthy declines in blood glucose levels were identified. The risk of kidney failure and dying from the condition also dropped among those who took the diabetes drug. These findings were "consistent across multiple subgroups, which shows that dapagliflozin prevented cardiovascular events, particularly hospitalization for heart failure, in a broad range of patients, regardless of a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or heart failure," according to the researchers. Dr Wiviott added: "When it comes to helping our patients control and manage blood glucose, the 'how' appears to be as important [as] the 'how much'. "When choosing a therapy, trial results like these can help us make an informed decision about what treatments are not only safe and effective for lowering blood glucose but can also reduce risk of heart and kidney complications." The study was funded by the drug's maker AstraZeneca, and has been published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
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