Cardiovascular and renal effectiveness of empagliflozin in routine care in East Asia: Results from the EMPRISE East Asia study

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of empagliflozin in clinical practice in East Asia in the Empagliflozin Comparative Effectiveness and Safety (EMPRISE) East Asia study. Materials and methods: Data were obtained from the Medical Data Vision database (Japan), National Health Insurance Service database (South Korea) and National Health Insurance database (Taiwan). Patients aged >= 18 years with type 2 diabetes initiating empagliflozin or a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor were 1:1 propensity score (PS) matched into sequentially built cohorts of new users naive to both drug classes. This design reduces confounding due to switching treatments, time lag and immortal time biases. Outcomes included hospitalization for heart failure (HHF), end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and all-cause mortality. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% Cls were estimated using Cox proportional models, controlling for > 130 baseline characteristics in each data source and pooled by random-effects meta-analysis. Results: Overall, 28712 pairs of PS-matched patients were identified with mean follow-up of 5.7-6.8 months. Compared with DPP-4 inhibitors, the risk of HHF was reduced by 18% and all-cause mortality was reduced by 36% with empagliflozin (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0.71-0.94, and HR 0.64; 95% CI 0.50-0.81, respectively). Reductions were consistent across countries, and in patients with and without baseline cardiovascular disease. ESRD was also significantly reduced with empagliflozin versus DPP-4 inhibitors (HR 0.37; 95% CI 0.24-0.58). Conclusions: Empagliflozin treatment was associated with reduced risk for HHF, allcause mortality and ESRD compared with DPP-4 inhibitors in routine clinical practice in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Automated summary

The study evaluated the effectiveness of empagliflozin in reducing risks of heart failure, end-stage renal disease and all-cause mortality compared to DPP-4 inhibitors in East Asian patients with type 2 diabetes. Results showed significant reductions in these risks across countries and regardless of baseline cardiovascular disease status.