Canada approves Ozempic to cut risk of kidney failure, heart-related deaths

(Reuters) -Canada has approved Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug, Ozempic, to cut chronic kidney disease progression and reduce the risk of kidney failure and heart-related deaths in type-2 diabetes patients, the company said Tuesday.

Ozempic, chemically known as semaglutide, is now the first approved treatment in Canada for type 2 diabetes and to slow related kidney disease, according to the Danish drugmaker.

Novo said Tuesday's approval from Health Canada was backed by late-stage trial data that showed a 1 milligram dose of Ozempic cut the risk of kidney-related death and major cardiac events by 24%.

Novo and U.S. rival Eli Lilly have been racing for more than two years to prove their competing GLP-1 drugs, already shown to be powerful weight-loss agents and diabetes treatments, can also be used to tackle other major diseases and potentially expand insurance coverage.

Ozempic won U.S. approval earlier this year to reduce kidney disease progression and death. Wegovy, Novo's obesity drug that shares Ozempic's active ingredient, was last week cleared in the U.S. to treat metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis, a serious progressive liver disease.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last December approved Lilly's obesity drug, Zepbound, for obstructive sleep apnea.

Novo Nordisk estimates that around 40% of people with type 2 diabetes have chronic kidney disease, which affects about 4 million people in Canada and 37 million in the U.S.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Patrick Wingrove)

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