The SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin did not significantly reduce risk for organ failure or death or improve recovery among adults hospitalized with COVID-19 vs. placebo, though data showed lower event numbers among treated patients.

Main results from the DARE-19 trial were presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session, on the heels of topline data announced in April.

Mikhail Kosiborod, MD, FACC, FAHA, cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, said the ever-evolving dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic made it challenging to accrue a large number of events in DARE-19, as the standard of care for hospitalized patients rapidly improved and fewer hospitalized patients experienced organ failure or death.

“There are things we learned relatively early after the pandemic started; one was that patients with cardiometabolic risk factors like HF, diabetes, kidney disease, were at the highest risk for being hospitalized with COVID-19,” Kosiborod told Healio. “Once hospitalized, they were at the highest risk for organ failure complications. The attention, initially, was directed toward anti-inflammatory and antiviral drugs, but we had this class of medicines, SGLT2 inhibitors, which already demonstrated organ protection in the very population at highest risk for COVID-19 complications, granted under more stable chronic disease conditions. The idea behind DARE-19 was straightforward: Is it possible that this agent can also provide benefit in acute illness?”

Read the full Healio article: DARE-19: No significant decrease in major events; dapagliflozin well treated in COVID-19