New Analysis Estimates the Positive Impact of Empagliflozin on Prolonging Life Expectancy

The journal Circulation published novel results based on data from the landmark EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, which suggest that treatment with empagliflozin positively impacts life expectancy in adults with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease. Using actuarial methods*, and assuming that the demonstrated beneficial effects of empagliflozin remain consistent with long-term use, empagliflozin was estimated to extend life expectancy by 1 to 4.5 years on average, depending on age, when compared with placebo. This analysis suggests that treatment with empagliflozin could add years of life. In an analysis of data from 7020 patients included in the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, estimated life expectancy increased across all ages when adults were treated with empagliflozin as compared to those treated with placebo. Specifically, estimated mean survival in people aged 45 years was 32.1 years with empagliflozin versus 27.6 years with placebo, resulting in a mean survival difference of 4.5 years.

In people aged 50, 60, 70 and 80 years old, the mean survival difference with empagliflozin compared to placebo was an additional 3.1 years, 2.5 years, 2 years and 1 year, respectively. The primary EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in September 2015, demonstrated a 38 percent relative risk reduction in cardiovascular death and a 32 percent relative risk reduction in all-cause mortality with empagliflozin in people with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease, compared with placebo, over a period of 3.1 years. Modelling based on the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial data was used to quantify the potential benefit of empagliflozin on residual life span.

*Actuarial methods refer to the statistical techniques and analysis used to prepare mortality and other analytical tables “For a 60-year-old living with type 2 diabetes, who has already had a cardiovascular event, previous studies estimate that life expectancy could be reduced by up to 12 years compared with someone of the same age without these conditions,” commented Brian Claggett, Ph.D., Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and lead author of the Circulation paper. “This latest analysis estimates that empagliflozin could prolong such a person’s life span by, on average, 2.5 years.” – Medical Buyer Bureau