In a clinical trial, the drug Jardiance, sold jointly by Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim reduced the overall risk of having a heart attack or stroke, or of dying from cardiovascular causes, by 14 percent. Looking only at cardiovascular deaths, the reduction was 38 percent.
“There are very few therapies we have in cardiovascular medicine that have ever shown a one-third reduction in the risk of cardiovascular death,” said Dr. Steven E. Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved in the study.
Because cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for people with diabetes, he said, reducing that rate “by 38 percent is a landmark result.”