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Further Finerenone Findings | Canary’s Potential Obesity Cure
January 16, 2025
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Together with
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“While some policies to curb SSB intakes are currently in place in some countries, our study suggests that more work is needed.”
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Lara-Castor et al., 2025
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Bayer’s FINEARTS-HF study revealed that finerenone could be poised to become the next big heart failure treatment at ESC 2024, and a new series of JACC sub-studies just further strengthened its case.
- FINEARTS-HF explored the effects of finerenone in ~6k HFmrEF/HFpEF patients and found that the drug significantly reduced worsening HF events and CV death versus placebo.
- Finerenone (Bayer’s Kerendia) got its start with CKD, and is the first mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist to be used for HF.
The first of the featured studies revealed that patients treated soon after experiencing a worsening heart failure (WHF) event saw greater benefits.
- Finerenone lowered the risk of CV events most in patients enrolled within one week (RR: 0.74) or three months of WHF (RR: 0.79).
The second sub-study discovered that finerenone reduced HF events and improved patient health, regardless of baseline KCCQ score.
- Finerenone reduced the risk of CV death and WHF events across all KCCQ ranges from scores of 0-<57 (RR: 0.82), to 57-<81 (0.88), and 81-100 (0.88).
- The drug also significantly improved KCCQ from baseline by an average of 1.62 points at 12 months.
Finerenone proved effective regardless of baseline bodyweight, reducing CV death and WHF events across all BMI groups (underweight/normal, rate ratio: 0.80; overweight: 0.91; obesity class I: 0.92; obesity class II-III: 0.67).
Despite the strong benefits, finerenone was not without its side effects, as the fourth and fifth sub-studies found that the drug led to a mild initial decline in eGFR, although it wasn’t significant enough to warrant stopping treatment.
- Nearly a quarter of finerenone patients experienced a ≥15% decline in eGFR compared to 13.4% on placebo.
- Notably, eGFR decline was associated with higher risk of CV death and HF events in patients on placebo but not in those on finerenone (aRR: 1.07 vs. 1.50).
The Takeaway
After an impressive primary study and several supportive sub-studies, all signs seem to be pointing in the direction of finerenone as a frontline HF treatment. That’s pretty big considering how relatively empty the HF pharmaceutical space was a decade ago.
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PRECISE Trial Rewrites the Patient Pathway
HeartFlow’s landmark PRECISE trial found that their precision approach for evaluating people with stable chest pain avoided unnecessary testing and improved care without putting patients at risk of a missed heart disease diagnosis.
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Cardiology AI: From Research to Clinical Practice
Explore how AI algorithms are reshaping cardiology with insights from Tempus’ recent webinar, featuring Dr. David Ouyang of UCLA and Cedars-Sinai, alongside Tempus’ Dr. John Pfeifer and Dr. Brandon Fornwalt. This expert panel dives into how AI can bridge diagnostic gaps, enhance patient outcomes, and streamline workflows for conditions like AFib and pulmonary hypertension. Read the full recap to glimpse the future of AI-driven cardiology.
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AI-Echo for Cardiac Amyloidosis
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- Can Canary Cure Obesity? Canary Cure Therapeutics announced breakthrough preclinical results for its siRNA weight loss candidate CCT-217 that avoids muscle loss and improves medication adherence. In the study, CCT-217 led to 26-34% total weight loss through fat reduction in just 20 days with no plateau, a 25% increase in lean body mass composition, and a 43.5% reduction in fat mass. The kicker? Canary claims its drug achieves these results with only twice-yearly dosing, addressing the adherence problem of other weight loss drugs.
- Kardigan’s Big Launch: Entering the drug design segment, Kardigan launched with $300M in Series A capital to develop multiple targeted CVD treatments by combining its research platform with strategic in-licensing and acquisitions. The company’s R&D platform uses proprietary cardiac-specific tools to better understand its therapeutic candidate mechanisms as well as patients’ individualized responses to treatment. This approach matches critical disease drivers with treatment responders to streamline trials and deliver new therapies to patients who could benefit the most.
- Treating NSTEMI: CABG or PCI? New data analysis suggests CABG might be superior to PCI for patients suffering from NSTEMI and multivessel disease. Researchers examined 57k patients who underwent revascularization with either CABG (14.9k) or PCI (42.1k) and found the PCI group experienced higher risks of mortality (aOR: 1.67), MI (1.51), repeat revascularization (3.01), and HF (1.15) compared to CABG. Among patients who lived +15 years after the procedures, the CABG group had 6.7-month longer average lifespans.
- AliveCor’s ECG Effectiveness: AliveCor announced new data demonstrating that its Kardia 12L ECG System performs comparably to a standard hospital-grade ECG when detecting common morphological cardiac abnormalities, including heart attack. The Kardia 12L ECG System was able to detect several types of defects including bundle branch blocks (right BBB, AUCPR = 0.96; left BBB, AUCPR = 0.93), ischemia (AUC > 0.97), and MI (Old MI, AUCPR: 0.77; Acute MI, AUCPR: 0.45).
- Put the Soda Down! Although it’s well-known that sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is associated with T2D and CVD, data on its global burden remains scarce. To address this, researchers examined SSB-attributable T2D and CVD burdens across 184 countries using the Global Dietary Database, finding that SSBs led to 2.2M new T2D cases and 1.2M new CVD cases worldwide in 2020 alone (9.8% and 3.1% of cases, respectively).
- Vutrisiran in Outpatient WHF: A recently published sub-study of the HELIOS-B trial found vutrisiran (Alnylam’s siRNA Amvuttra) significantly reduced outpatient worsening HF events in ATTR-CM patients. Of the study’s 653 randomized patients, including 321 who suffered from outpatient WHF, patients who received vutrisiran experienced a 34% decrease in WHF event rates. Vutrisiran also reduced the composite risk of all-cause mortality, CV events, and outpatient WHF by 31% compared to placebo.
- Alleviant Funds ALLAY-HFrEF: Following recent regulatory successes, Alleviant Medical landed $90M in financing to fund its second pivotal trial, ALLAY-HFrEF, which will be the company’s first prospective sham-controlled study focused on testing HFrEF patients with its proprietary atrial shunt technology. The funding announcement follows the company’s recent IDE and breakthrough designation for HFrEF patients. On the other side of the HF spectrum, Alleviant’s first trial ALLAY-HF is on track to finalize enrollment within the next year.
- BP TTR & ADEs: A recent AHA Hypertension study suggests longer blood pressure time in target range (TTR) could be related to reduced adverse health risks. Researchers performed meta-analyses of 21 studies and found that sustained TTR control led to significantly decreased risks of all-cause mortality (15-19% decrease), cardiovascular death (17-24%), MACE (16-24%), and HF (16-22%). However, the data examined did not support the association of TTR with MI, stroke, AFib, or adverse kidney event risks.
- CMS Covers IPAPS: Clearing up authorization concerns, CMS now covers implantable pulmonary artery pressure sensors (IPAPS) for HF management under its Coverage with Evidence Development guidelines. IPAPS implantation is now covered for HF management when requested in relation to an FDA market-authorized indication. However, patients have to meet a long list of criteria, including: (1) diagnosis of chronic HF of at least 3 months, (2) history of HF hospitalization within 12 months, and (3) receiving GDMT for at least 3 months prior.
- Medtronic Contracts Contego: Expanding its offerings in the U.S. carotid market, Medtronic formed an exclusive distribution agreement with Contego Medical for its entire portfolio of carotid and peripheral vascular products including the recently FDA-approved Neuroguard IEP 3-in-1 carotid stent and post-dilation balloon system with integrated embolic protection. The distribution agreement also includes an increased investment in Contego and an option for Medtronic to acquire the company.
- Myant + mmHg: In an effort to enter the U.S. after building its E.U. distribution, Myant acquired remote patient monitoring company, mmHg. The acquisition aims to combine mmHg’s remote BP and cardiac vital monitoring capabilities with Myant’s textile computing technology to give healthcare providers access to real-time patient data for earlier health risk detection. As part of the acquisition, Myant will have access to mmHg’s existing partnership with medical device manufacturer A&D Medical.
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Cloud-Based Enterprise Imaging Empowerment
Do your cardiology imaging workflows follow cloud best practices? Read Optum and Frost & Sullivan’s enterprise imaging whitepaper to help you ensure your team is optimally housing, accessing, analyzing, and leveraging imaging data as the industry shifts to value-based care.
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Your Cardiology Data is Valuable. Put it To Work.
See how one major Midwest health system’s decision to implement Merge Cardio transformed physician and staff workflows, improved data entry speed and accuracy, and increased cost savings.
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Uncover Cleerly’s Clinical Success
Interested in learning more about the science behind Cleerly’s suite of medical technologies that are revolutionizing cardiac imaging? Click here for all of Cleerly’s recently published clinical studies.
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- Partnerships That Produce Results: Find out how Monebo can help you develop algorithms that meet your specific ECG analysis needs using its Kinetic Family of ECG Algorithms that scale for use in devices utilizing small microcontrollers or DSP’s, all the way up to PC or server-based platforms.
- Experience the future of learning: Medtronic Academy 2.0 is here! Unlock your ultimate destination for structural heart medical education with the newly redesigned Medtronic Academy 2.0. Gain access to expert-led courses, webinars, and a wealth of resources to stay ahead in cardiovascular care. Visit now!
- A Better Way to Coordinate Post-Stroke Care: Think your EHR messaging system might be holding back your post-stroke care? See how UC San Diego Medical Center streamlined its neuro and EP teams’ post-stroke workflow with Viz Connect, and the impact it had on cardiac monitor placements in inpatient and outpatient settings.
- Redefining Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Learn about the AGENT™ Drug-Coated Balloon from Boston Scientific and how this technology is expanding the treatment options for patients with in-stent restenosis in the U.S. Rx only. (Sponsored by Boston Scientific)
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- Assessing CAD with Circle CVI: Did you know that Circle CVI offers a suite of cardiac CT tools for the assessment of coronary artery disease? See how Circle combines heart function segmentation, automated plaque analysis, CAC scoring, reporting, and viewing in a single dedicated Cardiac CT package.
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