ADA: J&J's struggling Invokana slashes heart, kidney risks in latest trial win

Johnson & Johnson and its fellow SGLT2 drugmakers are all working to show benefits for patients with kidney disease. But in that group, J&J can tout data its rivals don’t have. Tuesday at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting, J&J’s Janssen unit rolled out a new analysis from kidney outcomes trial Credence. The study showed Invokana could produce benefits across diabetic chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with or without known cardiovascular disease. “What we saw were very consistent findings both on the renal endpoints and on the cardiovascular endpoints in these patients,” said Jim List, Janssen’s cardiovascular and metabolism R&D head. The findings make the latest subanalysis “perhaps the most intriguing or exciting” of the bunch, List said, pointing out that, “it’s the first time for an SGLT2 that there’s been some solid evidence of a cardiovascular benefit for patients without known cardiovascular disease.”