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Study: Type 2 diabetes pill Jardiance cuts risk of death

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Jardiance sharply reduced chances of dying in diabetic patients at high risk of heart complications, a study shows, making the Type 2 diabetes medication the first shown to lengthen diabetics' lives.The study found Jardiance reduced deaths from heart complications by 38 percent, deaths from any cause by 32 percent and hospitalizations due to chronic heart failure by 35 percent.Heart complications prematurely kill many of the estimated 387 million diabetics worldwide, so doctors in recent years have moved from trying to reduce patients' blood sugar to trying to prevent cardiovascular complications.The results were particularly striking because nearly four-fifths of the participants were already taking standard medicines to control blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol, plus taking either Jardiance or a dummy pill.Wall Street was impressed, driving shares of drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co. up 6.6 percent to $89.98. Earlier the stock traded at $92.85, its highest point in nearly 15 years.Lilly and German partner Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. funded the study, which included 7,020 patients in 42 countries followed for about three years, on average.Last month, the drugmakers announced their study showed cardiovascular deaths were lower in participants taking Jardiance than those given a dummy pill, in addition to standard heart and diabetes drugs. Detailed results were released Thursday, simultaneously at a European medical conference and in the New England Journal of Medicine.\Patients who took this drug had basically a 1-in-3 chance of avoiding death