REDUCE-IT DIABETES Strengthens Icosapent Ethyl's Safety, Efficacy Profile

A new analysis of the landmark REDUCE-IT trial from the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) 80th Scientific Sessions is diving deeper into the cardiovascular benefits of icosapent ethyl (Vascepa) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Titled REDUCE-IT DIABETES, results of the analysis offer clinicians the most comprehensive overview to date of the fish oil-derived agent in diabetic patients.

“This REDUCE-IT DIABETES analysis illustrates one, people with diabetes have higher event rates than people without diabetes as is consistent with the known literate,” said study presenter Deepak Bhatt, MD, MPH, lead investigator of the original REDUCE-IT trial and executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in an interview with HCPLive®. “And two, and more importantly and pertinent from this presentation, is that icosapent ethyl has a large effect on this risk.”

Even before receiving approval as an adjunct for reducing the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with triglyceride levels 150 mg/dL or greater, the ADA had incorporated findings from the main REDUCE-IT trial in their 2019 Standards of Care. Fast-forward to ADA 2020 and REDUCE-IT DIABETES had become one of the most anticipated presentations at this year’s virtual conference.

Overall, 58.5% of the original REDUCE-IT trial had a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus at baseline. Of note, 91% were taking at least 1 diabetes medication and nearly half (49.5%) were taking 2 or more.


According to the abstract presented at ADA 2020, icosapent ethyl use was associated with greater cardiovascular benefit than placebo. Specially, icosapent ethyl was associated with a 23% reduction (51.6% versus 38.9%; RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66-0.99; P=.0003) in risk for total events and a 23% reduction (29.2% vs 22.2%; HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.68-0.87; P=.00005) in first events compared with placebo.

Investigators pointed out the safety and efficacy of icosapent ethyl in patients with diabetes mellitus were similar to the safety and efficacy profile established in the original REDUCE-IT trial.

To learn more about the implications of REDUCE-IT diabetes, HCPLive invited Bhatt to take place in a special edition ADA 2020 House Call.

This study, “Substantial Cardiovascular Benefit from Icosapent Ethyl in Patients with Diabetes: REDUCE-IT DIABETES,” was presented at ADA 2020.