LAUSR

Background -Reduction in cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure (HHF) was recently reported with the sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitor (SGLT-2i) empagliflozin in type 2 diabetes patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. We compared HHF and death in patients newly initiated on any SGLT-2i versus other glucose lowering drugs (oGLDs) in six countries to determine if these benefits are seen in real-world practice, and across SGLT-2i class. Methods -Data were collected via medical claims, primary care/hospital records and national registries from the US, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the UK. Propensity score for SGLT-2i initiation was used to match treatment groups. Hazard ratios (HRs) for HHF, death and their combination were estimated by country and pooled to determine weighted effect size. Death data were not available for Germany. Results -After propensity matching, there were 309,056 patients newly initiated on either SGLT-2i or oGLD (154,528 patients in each treatment group). Canagliflozin, dapagliflozin, and empagliflozin accounted for 53%, 42% and 5% of the total exposure time in the SGLT-2i class, respectively. Baseline characteristics were balanced between the two groups. There were 961 HHF cases during 190,164 person-years follow up (incidence rate [IR] 0.51/100 person-years). Of 215,622 patients in the US, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and UK, death occurred in 1334 (IR 0.87/100 person-years), and HHF or death in 1983 (IR 1.38/100 person-years). Use of SGLT-2i, versus oGLDs, was associated with lower rates of HHF (HR 0.61; 95% CI 0.51-0.73; p<0.001); death (HR 0.49; 95% CI 0.41-0.57; p<0.001); and HHF or death (HR 0.54; 95% CI 0.48-0.60, p<0.001) with no significant heterogeneity by country. Conclusions -In this large multinational study, treatment with SGLT-2i versus oGLDs was associated with a lower risk of HHF and death, suggesting that the benefits seen with empagliflozin in a randomized trial may be a class effect applicable to a broad population of T2D patients in real-world practice (NCT02993614). Clinical Trial Registration -URL: ClinicalTrials.gov; Unique Identifier: NCT02993614.