Lily's Jardiance Effective In Lowering Cardiovascular Death

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) announced that new data presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2016 from long-term cardiovascular (CV) outcomes study of its diabetes medicine Jardiance showed that the drug was effective in reducing the risk for cardiovascular death.

The results, which are part of the landmark EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial, showed that irrespective of the type of cardiovascular disease at baseline, Jardiance tablets reduced the risk of cardiovascular death in adults with type II diabetes and established cardiovascular disease compared to placebo when added to standard of care.

Cardiovascular disease is very common in adults with type II diabetes. Approximately two out of three deaths in people with type II diabetes in the U.S. are caused by cardiovascular diseases. These include a number of different vascular outcomes like heart attack, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease and stroke.

EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial was carried out on more than 7,000 patients, from 42 countries, with type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It is regarded as the first long-term trial of a diabetes medication to show a reduction in cardiovascular death in adults with type II diabetes and established cardiovascular disease. This study is supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, a leading research-driven pharmaceutical company and Lilly.

Lilly and partner Boehringer Ingelheim are currently seeking FDA approval for the addition of cardiovascular (CV) risk reduction data from the EMPA-REG OUTCOME study on Jardiance. In June. The FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee met to review the data and voted 12-11 that enough evidence exists to establish that Jardiance reduces CV death in adults with type 2 diabetes and established CV disease. An FDA decision is expected in early December.

The addition of this data to Jardiance’s label can lead to a major surge in sales.

Last month the company reported its third-quarter 2016 results wherein Jardiance sales were reported to be $47.5 million up from $15.4 reported in the year ago quarter.

Other than Jardiance, Lilly’s diabetes portfolio includes other newly launched drugs like Tradjenta, Trulicity, Synjardy and Glyxambi which is a fixed dose combination of Jardiance/metformin. Lately, these drugs have been driving the company’s topline growth.

Lilly currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the healthcare sector include Arbutus Biopharma Corp. (NASDAQ:ABUS) , Heska Corp. (NASDAQ:HSKA) and Anika Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:ANIK) . Anika and Heska sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) while Arbutus carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Arbutus’ loss estimates narrowed from $2.15 to $1.80 for 2016 and from $1.96 to $1.53 for 2017 over the last 60 days. The company posted positive surprises in three of the trailing four quarters with an average beat of 59.31%.

Heska’s earnings estimates increased from $1.13 to $1.35 for 2016 and from $1.38 to $1.53 for 2017 over the last 60 days. The company posted positive surprises in all of the four trailing quarters with an average beat of 301.64%.

Anika’s earnings estimates increased from $1.96 to $2.06 for 2016 and from $2.03 to $2.09 for 2017 over the last 60 days. The company posted positive surprises in all of the four trailing quarters with an average beat of 33.14%.

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