The Urgency for Heart Failure Research and New Treatment Options
The Urgency for Heart Failure Research and New Treatment Options
Author: Mohamed Eid, M.D., M.P.H, M.H.A
The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2020 kicks off this weekend, featuring full results from EMPEROR-Reduced, our pivotal heart failure trial. For the work we do at Boehringer Ingelheim alongside Lilly, the EMPEROR trials and the larger EMPOWER clinical program continue our legacy of advancing research across cardio-renal-metabolic conditions. This is a journey we set out on many years ago – one that already includes significant achievements.
Addressing Unmet Needs for People with Heart Failure
What drives us in our research efforts in heart failure is the knowledge of how devastating this condition can be for people and societies. Sixty million people worldwide have heart failure, and over half of them die within five years of diagnosis. Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization in the U.S., and each hospitalization increases the risk of death in those with heart failure. Despite the high prevalence and serious outcomes associated with heart failure, there are still only limited treatment options available. Even with advances in heart failure research, it has been difficult to make progress in therapy options for use in clinical care. This is true for people suffering from heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, a form of this condition affecting roughly half of those with heart failure. The situation is even more dire for people suffering from heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, where there are no currently approved therapies specific to the condition.
A Growing and Interconnected Public Health Issue
The need for new evidence and treatment options is more urgent than ever, as cases of heart failure continue to grow in the U.S.
The rise in heart failure incidence may be partially linked to the continued increase of disorders such as diabetes, other cardiovascular diseases and chronic kidney disease, where the underlying pathology may be intertwined and interconnected. Research shows that dysfunction in any one of the cardiovascular, renal or metabolic systems may accelerate the onset of or worsen the conditions in the others. For example, people with diabetes are twice as likely to be hospitalized for heart failure. Additionally, nearly a third of people with diabetes — and over half of people with heart failure — also have chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death, and nearly half of end-stage kidney disease cases may be triggered by diabetes.
The overlap among these interconnected disorders is striking and should be considered when clinical therapeutic decisions are made. No single medicine can treat all of these conditions, but through our research programs, we are working to embrace a multifaceted approach to develop integrated multi-organ benefits. In clinical practice, we strongly encourage multidisciplinary care models which simultaneously address the cardio-renal-metabolic burden and acknowledge that improving the health of one system can lead to positive effect in the others.
We are excited by the progress we have made through our broad and comprehensive clinical development program, exploring treatment in a spectrum of cardio-renal-metabolic conditions. We will continue on our mission to help transform care for the billion people worldwide affected by cardio-renal-metabolic conditions, and look forward to sharing more data and insights in the months ahead.
