Real-World Eligibility and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Empagliflozin for Heart Failure in Korea

BACKGROUND

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved empagliflozin for reducing cardiovascular mortality and heart failure (HF) hospitalization in patients with both HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, limited data are available on the generalizability of empagliflozin to clinical practice. Therefore, we evaluated real-world eligibility and potential cost-effectiveness based on a nationwide prospective HF registry.

METHODS

A total of 3,108 HFrEF and 2,070 HFpEF patients from the Korean Acute Heart Failure (KorAHF) registry were analyzed. Eligibility was estimated by inclusion and exclusion criteria of EMPagliflozin outcomE tRial in Patients With chrOnic heaRt Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction (EMPEROR-Reduced) and EMPagliflozin outcomE tRial in Patients With chrOnic heaRt Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction (EMPEROR-Preserved) trials and by FDA & EMA label criteria. The cost-utility analysis was done using a Markov model to project the lifetime medical cost and quality-adjusted life year (QALY).

RESULTS

Among the KorAHF patients, 91.4% met FDA & EMA label criteria, while 44.7% met the clinical trial criteria. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of empagliflozin was calculated at US$6,764 per QALY in the overall population, which is far below a threshold of US$18,182 per QALY. The cost-effectiveness benefit was more evident in patients with HFrEF (US$5,012 per QALY) than HFpEF (US$8,971 per QALY).

CONCLUSION

There is a large discrepancy in real-world eligibility for empagliflozin between FDA & EMA labels and clinical trial criteria. Empagliflozin is cost-effective in HF patients regardless of ejection fraction in South Korea health care setting. The efficacy and safety of empagliflozin in real-world HF patients should be further investigated for a broader range of clinical applications.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01389843.

WEIGHT LOSS EFFECT OF SODIUM-GLUCOSE COTRANSPORTER-2 (SGLT2) INHIBITORS IN PATIENTS WITH OBESITY WITHOUT DIABETES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

CONTEXT

Obesity is a chronic disorder with excessive accumulation and hypertrophy of adipose cells. Selective sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) Inhibitor has shown an effect of weight loss in several studies. However, weight loss in patients with obesity without diabetes remains unclear.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review aims to address the weight loss effects of SGLT 2 inhibitors in obese subjects without diabetes.

METHODS

We incorporated search engines from Pubmed, EBSCO host, and Proquest. The inclusion criteria for this research were full-text, written in English, written in Bahasa Indonesia, reported the effect of SGLT 2 inhibitors for weight loss in obese patients, the design of the studies, outcomes, and the results of the study. We created a data extraction table to gather the required data for the review. The exclusion criteria for this study were incomplete outcomes, not full-text studies, case reports, literature review, and irrelevant studies.

RESULTS

A total of 451 studies were identified from research database. There are 7 studies eligible to be included in this review. Weight loss effects of SGLT2 Inhibitors were observed in all the studies included in this review.

CONCLUSION

SGLT2 inhibitor is an effective weight loss therapy in patients with obesity without diabetes.

Structural Perspectives and Advancement of SGLT2 Inhibitors for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is an ailment that affects a large number of individuals worldwide and its pervasiveness has been predicted to increase later on. Every year, billions of dollars are spent globally on diabetes-related health care practices. Contemporary hyperglycemic therapies to rationalize Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) mostly involve pathways that are insulin-dependent and lack effectiveness as the pancreas' β-cell function declines more significantly. Homeostasis via kidneys emerges as a new and future strategy to minimize T2DM complications. This article covers the reabsorption of glucose mechanism in the kidneys, the functional mechanism of various Sodium- Glucose Cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, their structure and driving profile, and a few SGLT2 inhibitors now accessible in the market as well as those in different periods of advancement. The advantages of SGLT2 inhibitors are dose-dependent glycemic regulation changes with a significant reduction both in the concentration of HbA1c and body weight clinically and statistically. A considerable number of SGLT2 inhibitors have been approved by the FDA, while a few others, still in preliminaries, have shown interesting effects.

Effect of SLGT2 Inhibitors on Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Background

Sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been associated with various cardiovascular benefits. There is limited data examining the effect of these medications on atrial fibrillation (AF) associated clinical outcomes. We compared ischemic stroke, acute coronary syndrome (ACS), cardioversion, and all-cause mortality outcomes in AF patients on SGLT2 inhibitors to propensity matched controls.

Materials and Methods

We conducted a retrospective study with a global medical research network database. AF patients were identified via ICD codes that must have been present for at least one month. Patients on SGLT2 inhibitors were identified as those on dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, or canagliflozin for at least one month. AF patients on SGLT2 inhibitors were propensity matched to those not on SGLT2 inhibitors based on age, race, ethnicity, cardiovascular comorbidities, valvular disease, pulmonary disease, urinary diseases, cardiovascular procedures, cardiovascular medications, and anticoagulants. We examined incidence of ischemic stroke, at least one ACS episode, cardioversion, and all-cause mortality.

Results

In 26,269 AF patients, SGLT2 inhibitors were associated with lower risk of cardioversion (HR 0.921, 95% CI 0.841 - 0.999, p = 0.0245) and all-cause mortality (HR 0.676, 95% CI 0.635 - 0.721, p < 0.0001). However, there was an association with increased risk for ischemic stroke (HR 1.081, 95% CI 1.012 - 1.154, p 0.0201). There was no clear association with ACS events.

Conclusions

In patients with AF, use of SGLT2 inhibitors was associated with a lower risk of cardioversion and all-cause mortality and higher probability of survival based on Kaplan-Meier analysis.

Efficacy and Cardiovascular Safety of SGLT2 Inhibitors

Patients with diabetes continued to exhibit a high risk for cardiovascular and renal events despite achieving satisfactory glycemic, blood pressure and lipid targets. Studies evaluating new diabetes medications focused on cardiovascular events, largely overlooking heart failure (HF). The latter has recently been recognised as a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with diabetes mellitus. There had been an unmet need for drugs with cardiovascular (including HF) and renal protection, with an expectation that an ideal diabetic drug should improve these endpoints. Moreover, an ideal drug should have weight reducing benefits. Recently published outcome trials have shown that sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) can reduce cardiovascular and renal events, together with statistically significant weight reduction. As a result, many recently published international guidelines have recommended SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1RAs in patients with diabetes and pre-existing cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this review, we will critically analyse the efficacy and cardiovascular (CV) safety of SGLT2 inhibitors, based on the available literature to help position them in the clinical decision process.