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Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) today announced an academic research collaboration with the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) on a new trial, EMPACT-MI (EMPAgliflozin for the prevention of Chronic heart failure and morTality after an acute Myocardial Infarction). The collaboration will investigate whether empagliflozin can improve outcomes and prevent heart failure in adults with and without diabetes who have had an acute myocardial infarction, more commonly known as a heart attack. This randomized clinical trial will be conducted, analyzed and reported in partnership with the DCRI, with Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly providing funding.
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EMPACT-MI will include approximately 3,300 adults across at least 16 countries who have had an acute myocardial infarction. The primary endpoint of the trial is to assess the effect of empagliflozin on all-cause mortality and hospitalization for heart failure. The trial will be part of the EMPOWER program, the broadest and most comprehensive clinical trial program exploring the impact of empagliflozin on the lives of people with cardio-renal-metabolic conditions.
“This collaboration represents an important step in understanding how to safeguard and protect the lives of patients with acute myocardial infarction,” said Adrian Hernandez, M.D., M.H.S., Co-Chair of the EMPACT-MI trial and DCRI Executive Director. “Myocardial infarction is the leading cause of death in cardiology, and this is the first trial in the SGLT2 inhibitor class to investigate the potential to increase survival and decrease progression to heart failure in people who have had a recent myocardial infarction.”
Javed Butler, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., Chair of the EMPACT-MI trial and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi, added, “We are delighted to lead the EMPACT-MI trial to find out whether empagliflozin could become a new standard of care option to improve the outcomes and lives of people with acute myocardial infarction.”
Pragmatic clinical trials focus on the relationship between treatments and outcomes in real-world health system practice. This partnership will leverage the DCRI’s experience in pragmatic trials by implementing innovative and efficient trial elements, including remote follow-up and a focused data collection approach, which enable a strong patient focus while maintaining high data quality.
“We are pleased to collaborate with the Duke Clinical Research Institute on the EMPACT-MI trial to investigate the potential to increase survival and prevent heart failure from developing in adults who have had a heart attack. Despite current therapies, these patients have a high residual risk that could be addressed by the multiple benefits we have observed with SGLT2 inhibition,” said Waheed Jamal, M.D., Corporate Vice President and Head of CardioMetabolic Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim.
“The EMPACT-MI trial is part of our broad and comprehensive clinical development program, which aims to explore how empagliflozin can improve health outcomes and fill therapeutic gaps for a broad range of patients suffering from cardio-renal-metabolic conditions,” said Jeff Emmick, M.D., Ph.D., vice president, Product Development, Lilly.
About the Duke Clinical Research Institute
The DCRI, part of the Duke University School of Medicine, is the largest academic clinical research organization in the world. Its mission is to develop and share knowledge that improves the care of patients through innovative research. The institute conducts groundbreaking multinational clinical trials, manages major national patient registries, and performs landmark outcomes research. DCRI research spans multiple disciplines, from pediatrics to geriatrics, primary care to subspecialty medicine, and genomics to proteomics. The DCRI also is home to the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Diseases, the largest and oldest institutional cardiovascular database in the world, which continues to inform clinical decision-making 40 years after its founding.
About EMPACT-MI
EMPACT-MI (EMPAgliflozin for the prevention of Chronic heart failure and morTality after an acute Myocardial Infarction) is a streamlined, randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled, multi-center trial exploring the efficacy and safety of empagliflozin in adults hospitalized with an acute myocardial infarction.
About EMPOWER
The EMPOWER program reinforces the long-term commitment of the Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company Alliance to improve outcomes for people living with cardiovascular and renal disease. EMPOWER is one of the largest cardiovascular clinical trial programs for an SGLT2 inhibitor to date with more than 13,000 adults worldwide. The aim of the program is preventing major clinical cardiovascular and renal outcomes that affect millions of adults worldwide as well as families and healthcare systems.
In addition to EMPACT-MI, the development program encompasses:
About Acute Myocardial Infarction
Ischemic heart disease, including acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), is the leading cause of death and disability in the world,1 with over 7 million acute myocardial infarctions occurring every year.2 People who suffer an acute myocardial infarction are at a high risk of heart failure and death. Heart attacks occur when the blood supply to an area of the heart is blocked by a blood clot or by atherosclerosis (fatty deposits or plaques lining vessel walls) causing heart tissue to die. Rapid diagnosis and treatment to restore blood flow through the affected vessel are vital to save as much of the heart tissue as possible.3
About Heart Failure
Heart failure is a progressive, debilitating and potentially fatal condition that occurs when the heart cannot supply adequate circulation to meet the body’s demands for oxygenated blood or to do so requires increased blood volume leading to fluid accumulation (congestion) in the lungs and peripheral tissues.4 It is a widespread condition affecting 60 million people worldwide and expected to increase as the population ages.5 Heart failure is highly prevalent in people with diabetes;6 however, approximately half of all people with heart failure do not have diabetes.3,7
The empagliflozin heart failure program was initiated based on data from the EMPA-REG OUTCOME® trial, which assessed the effect of empagliflozin (10 mg or 25 mg once daily) added to standard of care compared with placebo added to standard of care.8 EMPA-REG OUTCOME® was the first SGLT2 inhibitor trial to show a relative risk reduction in cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes and established cardiovascular disease. This population was comprised of more than 45% of adults with a prior myocardial infarction.8
About Empagliflozin
Empagliflozin (marketed as Jardiance®) is an oral, once daily, highly selective sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor and the first type 2 diabetes medicine to include cardiovascular death risk reduction data in its label in several countries.9,10,11
Inhibition of SGLT2 with empagliflozin in people with type 2 diabetes and high blood sugar levels prevents sugar being re-absorbed by the kidneys, leading to the excretion of excess sugar in the urine. In addition, initiation of empagliflozin also prevents salt being re-absorbed, leading to increased excretion of salt from the body and reducing the fluid load of the body’s blood vessel system (i.e. intravascular volume). Empagliflozin induces changes to the sugar, salt and water metabolism in the body that may contribute to the reductions in cardiovascular death observed in the EMPA-REG OUTCOME® trial.12
