Farxiga's expanded approval highlights potential to differentiate in HF space

Farxiga’s (dapagliflozin) recent approvals will help a broader range of patients with heart failure (HF) in the USA.

As a result, UK pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) is expected to see a significant boost in its revenues from the drug, which notched up sales of $4.4 billion (+46% year-on-year), in 2020, Farxiga is expected to have such a strong influence on the market due to the impressive results and valuable evidence seen in recent trials. The drug fills an unmet need in the HF space by substantially reducing mortality and hospital readmission rates while maintaining tolerability and safety, says data and analytics company GlobalData.

“Farxiga has paved the way for the establishment of a sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor class effect in HF, which is expected to drive further research and development in this area. The ideal HF therapy must demonstrate regenerative potential, repair cardiac damage, and reverse disease progression. However, regenerative therapies come with high price tags, and since highly priced drugs have struggled to penetrate the HF market, this may deter drug developers from pursuing such a therapy,” commented GlobalData’s senior pharma analyst Kajal Jaddoo.