At this year’s American Heart Association (AHA) conference, during a main event session on the topic of ‘GLP-1RAs and Beyond: Incretin Analogues and a New Frontier in Cardiovascular Therapeutics’, Katherine Tuttle, MD, discussed the renal effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist therapy. Tuttle focused on Novo Nordisk’s (Novo’s) Ozempic (semaglutide) to highlight the progress made in GLP-1 for the management of diabetic kidney disease.
The discussion at AHA emphasised that the FLOW trial established that semaglutide prevents major kidney outcomes, major adverse cardiovascular events, and death in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). In addition, the four pillars of therapy are now a renin-angiotensin system inhibitor, a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor, a non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, and semaglutide. Tuttle also highlighted major barriers that prevent patients from being treated, such as low CKD awareness, detection, and access to care.
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According to GlobalData’s ‘Chronic Kidney Disease: Epidemiology Forecast to 2033‘ report, the total prevalent cases of CKD are expected to increase from 110,299,913 cases in 2023 to 121,072,673 cases in 2033 across the seven major markets (7MM: US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Japan).
In March 2024, Novo announced positive results from the kidney outcomes trial FLOW. According to the trial, semaglutide 1.0mg reduced risk of kidney disease progression and the risk of kidney and cardiovascular deaths by 24%. Key opinion leaders interviewed by GlobalData think that semaglutide has the potential to be a treatment option for non-diabetic CKD patients whose kidney problems are due to their obesity as opposed to diabetes.
FLOW was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, Phase III trial to assess the safety and efficacy of semaglutide when added to standard of care; 3,533 participants with T2D and CKD were enrolled and the safety and tolerability profiles were consistent with previous semaglutide 1.0mg studies.
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