Locked in a heated contest with rival AstraZeneca for the lucrative heart failure market, Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim are hoping to keep pace with their diabetes med, Jardiance. AstraZeneca struck a major blow in May with an FDA approval for its Farxiga in a novel indication—but Jardiance isn't far behind.
Jardiance beat out placebo in reducing the risks of cardiovascular death and hospitalization in heart failure patients with or without Type 2 diabetes, according to top-line data released Thursday.
The big win in the Emperor-Reduced phase 3 study, which is trying Jardiance in heart failure patients with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), could tee up a fight between Jardiance and AstraZeneca's Farxiga, the first SGLT2 inhibitor to score an FDA approval for heart failure patients regardless of whether they have diabetes.
"There is an urgent need for new heart failure treatments, and these results show promise for the potential role Jardiance can play in improving the lives of adults living with this condition," Mohamed Eid, Boehringer's VP of clinical development and medical affairs in the cardiometabolism and respiratory medicine unit, said in a release.
The partners will present the full results of the Emperor-Reduced study at the virtual ESC congress in late August and plan to file for regulatory approval this year.
Scoring a speedy approval would help Jardiance play catch-up with Farxiga, which has a head start after its game-changing approval in May.
