Impact of Finerenone-Induced Albuminuria Reduction on Chronic Kidney Disease Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes
Rajiv Agarwal, Wanzhu Tu, Alfredo E. Farjat, Youssef M.K. Farag, Robert D. Toto, Sanjay Kaul, Robert Lawatscheck, Katja Rohwedder, Luís M. Ruilope, Peter Rossing, Bertram Pitt, Gerasimos Filippatos, Stefan D. Anker, George L. Bakris, FIDELIO-DKD and FIGARO-DKD Investigators, Augusto Vallejos, Richard J. MacIsaac, Guntram Schernthaner, Pieter Gillard, Maria Eugênia Fernandes Canziani, Theodora Temelkova‐Kurktschiev, Ellen Burgess, Sheldon W. Tobe, Fernando González, Zhi-Hong Liu, Andrés Ángelo Cadena Bonfanti, Carlos Jaramillo, Martin Prázný, Jorma Strand, Michel Marre, Roland E. Schmieder, Christoph Wanner, Pantelis Sarafidis, Juliana C.N. Chan, László Rosivall, Joseph A. Eustace, Ehud Grossman, Yoram Yagil, Giuseppe Remuzzi, Daisuke Koya, Takashi Wada, Magdalena Madero Rovalo, Ron T. Gansevoort, Adriaan Kooy, Trine Finnes, Froilan DeLeon, Janusz Gumprecht, Fernando Teixeira e Costa, Alexander Dreval, Anantharaman Vathsala, Aslam Amod, Sin Gon Kim, Byung‐Wan Lee, Julio Pascual Santos, Bengt-Olov Tengmark, Michel Burnier, Chien‐Te Lee, Sukit Yamwong, Ramazan Sarı, Kieran McCafferty, Borys Mankovsky, Sharon G. Adler, Linda F. Fried, Mark V. Williams, Tran Quang Khanh, Diego Aizenberg, Inés Bartolacci, Diego Besada, Julio Bittar, Mariano Chahin, Alicia Elbert, Elizabeth Gelersztein, Alberto Liberman, Laura Maffei, Federico Pérez Manghi, Hugo Sanabria, Gloria Viñes, Alfredo Wassermann, Walter P. Abhayaratna, Shamasunder Acharya, Elif I. Ekinci, Darren Lee, Peak Mann Mah, Craig Nelson, David Packham, Alexia Pape, Simon Roger, Hugo Stephenson, Michael Suranyi, Gary Wittert, Elizabeth Vale, Martin Clodi, Christoph Ebenbichler, Evelyn Fließer-Görzer, Ursula Hanusch, Michael Krebs, Karl Lhotta, Bernhard Ludvik, Gert Mayer, Peter Neudorfer
Abstract
BACKGROUND: In patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D), finerenone, a nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, reduces cardiovascular and kidney failure outcomes. Finerenone also lowers the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR). Whether finerenone-induced change in UACR mediates cardiovascular and kidney failure outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To quantify the proportion of kidney and cardiovascular risk reductions seen over a 4-year period mediated by a change in kidney injury, as measured by the change in log UACR between baseline and month 4. DESIGN: Post hoc mediation analysis using pooled data from 2 phase 3, double-blind trials of finerenone. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02540993 and NCT02545049). SETTING: Several clinical sites in 48 countries. PATIENTS: 12 512 patients with CKD and T2D. INTERVENTION: Finerenone and placebo (1:1). MEASUREMENTS: Separate mediation analyses were done for the composite kidney (kidney failure, sustained ≥57% decrease in estimated glomerular filtration rate from baseline [approximately a doubling of serum creatinine], or kidney disease death) and cardiovascular (cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure) outcomes. RESULTS: At baseline, median UACR was 514 mg/g. A 30% or greater reduction in UACR was seen in 3338 (53.2%) patients in the finerenone group and 1684 (27.0%) patients in the placebo group. Reduction in UACR (analyzed as a continuous variable) mediated 84% and 37% of the treatment effect on the kidney and cardiovascular outcomes, respectively. When change in UACR was analyzed as a binary variable (that is, whether the guideline-recommended 30% reduction threshold was met), the proportions mediated for each outcome were 64% and 26%, respectively. LIMITATION: The current findings are not readily extendable to other drugs. CONCLUSION: In patients with CKD and T2D, early albuminuria reduction accounted for a large proportion of the treatment effect against CKD progression and a modest proportion of the effect against cardiovascular outcomes. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: Bayer AG.