The research was presented at this year’s annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and published in The Lancet.
Albiglutide is a type of drug called a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist.
The GSK-sponsored Harmony-Outcomes study was led by Professor Stefano Del Prato, Department of Clinical & Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa and Professor John McMurray, British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Research Centre, University of Glasgow.
The randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, event-driven trial took place at 610 sites in 28 countries.
Patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease were randomly assigned to a weekly injection of albiglutide or matching placebo in addition to standard care.
The authors hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke.
Overall, 9463 participants were followed for a median of 1.6 years.
The pre-specified primary combined outcome occurred in 338 of 4731 patients (7.1 per cent; 4.6 events per 100 person-years) in the albiglutide group and in 428 of 4732 patients (9 per cent; 5.9 events per 100 person-years) in the placebo group, meaning a 22 per cent reduced risk of this outcome in the albiglutide group (a statistically significant result showing albiglutide to be superior to placebo).
The authors said: “In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease receiving standard care, addition of once-weekly albiglutide reduced the risk of the primary composite outcome – death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or nonfatal stroke – by 22 per cent, compared with the addition of placebo.
“Overall, the number of patients who would need to be treated with albiglutide to prevent one event over a median of 1.6 years was 50.”
Professor Stefano Del Prato said: “We are very excited by these results which add to the evidence that certain GLP-1-receptor agonists reduce cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes.
“This new therapeutic approach offers physicians a further means of reducing the most common and deadly complication faced by our patients with type 2 diabetes.”
Professor McMurray said: “These are impressive findings, with a reduction in risk at least as large as that obtained with traditional cardiovascular drugs and clearly an important addition to the therapeutic approaches available to tackle this problem.”
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