AstraZeneca has announced that the approved use of Forxiga (dapagliflozin) in Australia has been extended to include the treatment of symptomatic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) in adults as an adjunct to the standard of care therapy.
Heart failure (HF) is a life-threatening chronic disease in which the heart muscle cannot pump enough blood around the body. The condition affects more than 100,000 Australians, over half of whom have a reduced ejection fraction.
Forxiga is the first SGLT2 inhibitor to be approved in Australia for the treatment of heart failure in patients with reduced ejection fraction.
According to Professor Andrew Coats, Cardiologist and Director of the Monash Warwick Alliance and Academic Vice-President at Monash and Warwick Universities, the new approval in Australia will assist thousands of Australians better manage the condition.
“In Australia we are still losing one person every three hours to heart failure. It is promising to see evidence-based treatments become available to help improve the management of this condition.
“New interventions will help the medical community to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease,” says Professor Coats.
The Heart Foundation says heart failure is a devastating chronic disease that can leave people with frightening symptoms of shortness of breath and fatigue.
“It is also one of the leading causes of hospital readmissions – more than one in five people with heart failure will return to hospital within one month of their last admission,” says Heart Foundation Group CEO, Adjunct Professor John Kelly.
“Despite significant advances, health outcomes are poor for people with heart failure and the financial and emotional costs are incredibly high.
“More needs to be done to improve health outcomes in heart failure patients which is why new breakthroughs in effective treatments are so important and needed.”
