AstraZeneca PLC said its drug Farxiga significantly cut the risk of heart-related sudden death or worsening of disease in certain heart failure patients, according to data from a late-stage study.
Statistically significant and clinically meaningful results from the phase 3 clinical trial, dubbed DAPA-HF, showed Farxiga, or dapagliflozin, reduced cardiovascular death or hospital admission in certain patients with heart failure, including those with and without type 2 diabetes — meeting the study's main composite goal.
Patients assessed in the study had heart failure, a condition in which the heart does not have the capacity to pump enough blood to maintain blood flow in a person's body. These patients also had reduced ejection fraction, in which the muscle of the left ventricle is not pumping normally, and had standard of care treatment.
The Cambridge, U.K.-based drugmaker will submit full results of the DAPA-HF study for presentation at a forthcoming medical meeting.
Farxiga, which is marketed as Forxiga in the EU, is also being evaluated in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction —the heart muscle pumps normally but is too stiff to fill properly with blood — in clinical trials named Deliver and Determine.
