* Farxiga meets all main goals of late-stage study
* Rival from Eli Lilly yet to get FDA approval for similar
setting
* Farxiga already approved for type-2 diabetes, heart
failure
(Writes through, adds details on drug, context and shares)
By Aakash B and Pushkala Aripaka
July 28 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's diabetes treatment
has shown promise in a late-stage trial to help to slow chronic
kidney disease, putting it on track for possible expanded
approvals ahead of rival drugs.
The British drugmaker said on Tuesday that the treatment -
Farxiga - which is used for the most common form of diabetes,
helped to improve renal function or reduced the risk of death
compared with a placebo in diabetic and non-diabetic patients in
a study.
Diabetes is known to have knock-on effects for the heart and
kidneys, prompting many drugmakers to test their diabetes
treatments on conditions affecting these organs.
Farxiga is part of the SGLT2-inhibitor class of
antidiabetics which also includes Eli Lilly and
Boehringer Ingelheim's Jardiance and Johnson & Johnson's
Invokana.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put
Jardiance up for a speedy review for a similar setting, but the
drug has yet to receive approval. Farxiga was granted this
status by the FDA last year.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a serious, progressive
condition which affects nearly 700 million people worldwide, and
has limited treatment options.
The positive data from AstraZeneca's late-stage DAPA-CKD
trial also comes nearly three months after U.S. regulators
approved Farxiga as a medicine for heart failure in certain
patients, regardless of their diabetes status.
Farxiga had sales of $1.54 billion in 2019, making it among
AstaZeneca's top five treatments in terms of revenue.
The AstraZeneca trial also met all of its secondary goals,
the company said.
Its shares were up 0.5% to 8,690 pence at 0850 GMT.
(Reporting by Aakash Jagadeesh Babu and Pushkala Aripaka in
Bengaluru. Editing by Bernard Orr and Jane Merriman)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
