• Bertram Pitt, Gerasimos Filippatos, Rajiv Agarwal, Stefan D Anker, George L Bakris, Peter Rossing, Amer Joseph, Peter Kolkhof, Christina Nowack, Patrick Schloemer, Luis M Ruilope, and FIGARO-DKD Investigators.
• From the Department of Medicine, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor (B.P.); National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Medicine, Department of Cardiology, Attikon University Hospital, Athens (G.F.); the Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Indiana University, Indianapolis (R.A.); the Department of Cardiology and Berlin Institute of Health Center for Regenerative Therapies, German Center for Cardiovascular Research Partner Site Berlin, Charité Universitätsmedizin (S.D.A.), and Research and Development, Cardiology and Nephrology Clinical Development (A.J.) and Statistics and Data Insights (P.S.), Bayer, Berlin, and Research and Development, Preclinical Research Cardiovascular (P.K.) and Clinical Development Operations (C.N.), Bayer, Wuppertal - all in Germany; the Department of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago (G.L.B.); Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, Gentofte, and the Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen - both in Denmark (P.R.); and the Cardiorenal Translational Laboratory and Hypertension Unit, Institute of Research i+12, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red, Enfermedades Cardiovasculares, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, and the Faculty of Sport Sciences, European University of Madrid - all in Madrid (L.M.R.).
• N. Engl. J. Med. 2021 Dec 9; 385 (24): 2252-2263.

BackgroundFinerenone, a selective nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, has favorable effects on cardiorenal outcomes in patients with predominantly stage 3 or 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD) with severely elevated albuminuria and type 2 diabetes. The use of finerenone in patients with type 2 diabetes and a wider range of CKD is unclear.MethodsIn this double-blind trial, we randomly assigned patients with CKD and type 2 diabetes to receive finerenone or placebo. Eligible patients had a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (with albumin measured in milligrams and creatinine measured in grams) of 30 to less than 300 and an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of 25 to 90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area (stage 2 to 4 CKD) or a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio of 300 to 5000 and an eGFR of at least 60 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 (stage 1 or 2 CKD). Patients were treated with renin-angiotensin system blockade that had been adjusted before randomization to the maximum dose on the manufacturer's label that did not cause unacceptable side effects. The primary outcome, assessed in a time-to-event analysis, was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. The first secondary outcome was a composite of kidney failure, a sustained decrease from baseline of at least 40% in the eGFR, or death from renal causes. Safety was assessed as investigator-reported adverse events.ResultsA total of 7437 patients underwent randomization. Among the patients included in the analysis, during a median follow-up of 3.4 years, a primary outcome event occurred in 458 of 3686 patients (12.4%) in the finerenone group and in 519 of 3666 (14.2%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.87; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.76 to 0.98; P = 0.03), with the benefit driven primarily by a lower incidence of hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.90). The secondary composite outcome occurred in 350 patients (9.5%) in the finerenone group and in 395 (10.8%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.76 to 1.01). The overall frequency of adverse events did not differ substantially between groups. The incidence of hyperkalemia-related discontinuation of the trial regimen was higher with finerenone (1.2%) than with placebo (0.4%).ConclusionsAmong patients with type 2 diabetes and stage 2 to 4 CKD with moderately elevated albuminuria or stage 1 or 2 CKD with severely elevated albuminuria, finerenone therapy improved cardiovascular outcomes as compared with placebo. (Funded by Bayer; FIGARO-DKD ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02545049.).Copyright © 2021 Massachusetts Medical Society.

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