Empagliflozin: Novel antidiabetes and pro-cardiac drug

Empagliflozin has been shown to improve glycaemic control and reduce CV mortality along with salutary effects on renal outcomes as compared to placebo in a recently conducted EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial in a large number of patients.[1,2] In this study, more than 7000 patients were randomly assigned to receive empagliflozin in the dose of 10 mg or 25 mg or placebo once daily. Patients were followed up over a median observation time of 3.1 years. Patients in the empagliflozin group suffered significantly lower rates of CV death (3.7% vs. 5.9% in the placebo group; 38% relative risk reduction), death from any cause (5.7% and 8.3%, respectively; 32% relative risk reduction) and hospitalisation for heart failure (HF) (2.7% and 4.1%, respectively; 35% relative risk reduction). Diabetic patients prone to CV events who received empagliflozin along with standard care had a reduced rate of the primary composite CV outcome and death from any cause, when compared with placebo.