New Drug Pulls Heart Failure Patients Back From the Brink
The dual SGLT-2 inhibitor sotagliflozin reduced deaths within 30 to 90 days in patients with diabetes and worsening heart failure, researchers reported at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in November 2022. This finding is significant, because one in four heart-failure patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, and nearly half are readmitted within 90 days. Readmission is a significant risk factor for death from worsening heart failure. Sotagliflozin is approved for use in Europe, but not yet in the U.S. To evaluate its impact, researchers reviewed the combined results of two randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials with a total of 11,000 patients. When given to patients with diabetes and worsening heart failure prior to hospital discharge, sotagliflozin was associated with a 51% reduction in heart failure hospitalizations and cardiovascular mortality within 30 days and a 45% reduction within 90 days.
