Drug increases the life expectancy of kidney failure patients

The drug dapagliflozin reduces the risk of kidney dialysis, hospitalization due to heart failure and death among chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients by 44%. This hopeful message was presented by Groningen-based Professor Hiddo Lambers Heerspink and his British colleague David Wheeler at an international online conference of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). ‘This drug enables patients to live longer and have fewer symptoms’, says Lambers Heerspink. ‘It is the first medication to increase the life expectancy of CKD patients’. Because it has already been registered, it can be prescribed to these patients relatively quickly.

Dapagliflozin is a drug that is currently being used to lower the blood sugar levels of diabetic patients. The researchers investigated its effect on renal failure patients with and without type 2 diabetes. The data collected from more than 4,000 patients showed that the drug has beneficial effects, even for patients who do not have diabetes. ‘It is evident that the drug does not have side effects and is highly effective. It can be given in combination with commonly prescribed antihypertensives to better protect the kidneys and prevent dialysis, hospitalization and death due to cardiovascular disease or renal failure.’

The good news is that this drug can be introduced for renal protection at short notice. ‘The drug is already on the market, although at present it is only prescribed to treat patients with type 2 diabetes. Because there is clear evidence that it protects the kidneys, we have initiated talks with the drug regulatory authorities to change its registration so that it can also be used in the treatment of CKD patients and be covered by health insurance for that purpose. Furthermore, it must be included in the CKD treatment guidelines’.

Lambers Heerspink hopes that the drug will be extensively publicized among doctors and patients. ‘The most important thing now is that we implement the results in the clinical practice, that doctors become aware that the drug has this effect and also that patients themselves start asking their doctors whether they may benefit from it. It often takes far too long before a drug is actually prescribed. Medication with such evident effects must become available to patients as quickly as possible.’

Prof. Hiddo Lambers Heerspink is a professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. He co-headed this study – the DAPA-CKD trial – with Prof. David Wheeler, a professor of Kidney Medicine at University College London, UK. The results of the study will be published soon.