Forxiga approved in China for heart failure

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca’s (LSS: AZN) Forxiga (dapagliflozin) has been approved in China to reduce the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death and hospitalisation for heart failure (hHF) in adults with heart failure (NYHA class II-IV) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Heart failure (HF) is a life-threatening chronic disease that prevents the heart from pumping sufficient levels of blood around the body. At least half of patients with HF have a reduced ejection fraction (EF),2 which occurs when the left ventricle muscle is not able to contract adequately, and therefore expels less oxygen-rich blood into the body.3-5

The approval by China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) is based on positive results from the landmark DAPA-HF Phase III trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The NMPA’s Center for Drug Evaluation granted DAPA-HF priority review in May 2020.