Ozempic cut risk of death in diabetes patients with chronic kidney disease

Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic cut the risk of death in a trial of patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, suggesting it may offer some added benefits over other classes of drugs approved to treat this population.

Specifically, the diabetes drug cut the risk of cardiovascular-related deaths by 29% and all-cause deaths by 20%. Given the study parameters, this implies that over three years, 39 people would need to be treated to prevent one death from any cause, according to new results presented Friday at a meeting of the European Renal Association and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Ozempic also lowered the risk of major heart complications — including cardiovascular-related death, heart attack, or stroke — by 18%, driven primarily by the reduced rate of heart-linked death.

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