Daiichi Sankyo has identified inequalities in cardiovascular disease treatment and outcomes, finding that women in Europe are less likely than men to receive lipid-lowering therapies and achieve LDL cholesterol goals.
The findings come from a subanalysis of SANTORINI, an observational study Daiichi funded to shed light on the care of people with high and very high cardiovascular risk in Europe. Investigators looked at how physicians assess risk and approach lipid-lowering regimens as well as the extent to which their decisions would enable the attainment of lipid goals set by cardiology groups.
Daiichi used the European Society of Cardiology Congress in London to share more data from the SANTORINI study. The subanalysis looked at 5,197 men and 2,013 women with similar mean ages, 65 years and 66 years, respectively. Daiichi said guideline recommendations for the men and women are similar.
At baseline, physicians opted against prescribing a lipid-lowering therapy to 23.9% of women, compared to 20.7% of men. Most of the untreated women had received a lipid-lowering drug one year later, but the gap with men persisted. The proportion of women not on lipid-lowering therapy after one year was 3.9%. The figure for men was 2.7%.
Women were less likely to achieve cholesterol targets. The proportion of patients reaching LDL-C goals improved from baseline to one-year follow-up in both cohorts but was greater in men, 22.9% and 33.3%, respectively, than in women. The figures for women were 16.9% and 24.6%.
“This new sub-analysis of the SANTORINI study further suggests that in clinical practice, women as a group were being disproportionally undertreated and do not always reach recommended LDL-C level goals,” the University of Lausanne’s David Nanchen, M.D., said in a statement. “These findings underscore the need for more widespread attention to better manage the risk of cardiovascular disease in women.”
Daiichi, which sells Esperion Therapeutics’ lipid-lowering drugs Nilemdo and Nustendi in Europe, said its commitment to addressing key unmet needs and barriers in cardiovascular care is reinforced after seeing the data. Nilemdo and Nustendi were approved to reduce the risk of adverse cardiovascular events in Europe in May. Daiichi named the drugs as growth drivers at its EU specialty unit in its first quarter.