A major international clinical trial found that finerenone can significantly slow the decline in kidney function in non-diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The results of this study suggest that this drug could become an important new treatment option for many patients who previously had limited treatment options other than standard therapy.
The study was led by clinical pharmacologist Hid Lambers-Herpink from the University Medical Center Groningen. New England Medical Journal.
Finerenone evaluated in large-scale international trial
The FIND-CKD study enrolled 1,584 adults with chronic kidney disease who were followed for an average of just over three years. All participants had impaired kidney function and elevated protein levels in their urine. This is an important warning sign that kidney damage may continue to worsen.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a daily dose of Finenone or a placebo. Both groups continued to receive standard treatment with ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers.
Decline in renal function slows down
The researchers measured how kidney function changed over a 2.5-year follow-up period using estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), which reflects how effectively the kidneys filter waste products from the blood.
Patients treated with finerenone experienced a statistically significant delay in eGFR decline compared to patients who received placebo. According to Lambers Heerspink, this improvement was not only statistically significant, but also clinically meaningful.
Lower risk of kidney and heart complications
The study also showed that finerenone reduced the chance of serious health complications, including serious kidney events, hospitalization for heart failure, and death from cardiovascular disease.
Professor Lambers-Hairpink said: “13.9% of patients in the fillerenone group experienced such complications compared to 16.9% in the placebo group. This corresponds to a reduction in risk of approximately 23%.”
Protein in urine decreased rapidly
Another important benefit was a significant reduction in urine protein, an early indicator of kidney damage.
Dr. Lambers Heerspink explained, “The presence of protein in the urine is often an important early sign of kidney damage. In the finerenone group, there was an average reduction of more than 41%, compared with about 9% in the placebo group. More than half of the patients who received finerenone achieved at least a 30% reduction in the amount of protein in their urine. Such a reduction is an important indicator of a better kidney prognosis.”
Expanding treatments beyond diabetes
Previous large-scale clinical trials of Filenone focused primarily on patients with type 2 diabetes. The new findings show that the drug also has meaningful effects in patients with chronic kidney disease who do not have diabetes.
According to Lambers-Hairpink, “We found that this drug is also effective in people without diabetes, even though more than half of the world’s CKD patients are non-diabetic. Chronic kidney disease currently affects an estimated 800 million adults worldwide.”
New options for non-diabetic CKD
The researchers also found that finerenone was safe to use throughout the study.
Dr. Lambers-Hairpink said: “Finerenone has the potential to be an important new treatment option for patients with chronic kidney disease who do not have diabetes. This drug can be added to current standard treatments to clearly slow the decline in kidney function. “This provides physicians with new treatment options to preserve kidney function and reduce the number of cardiovascular and renal complications. And this applies to a wide range of undertreated non-diabetic CKD patients with few treatment options.” Guidelines. ”
