Ozempic reduces the risk of death in diabetes patients with chronic kidney disease

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

Specifically, the diabetes drug reduced the risk of cardiovascular deaths by 29% and the risk of deaths from all causes by 20%. Given the study parameters, this implies that over a three-year period, 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.

Ozempic also reduced the risk of serious heart complications – including cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke – by 18%, mainly due to the lower number of heart-related deaths.