Abstract

This study aimed to close an evidence gap concerning the relative efficacy of finerenone versus SGLT2is in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Canagliflozin was selected as a proxy for the SGLT2i class. Patient-level data of two randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of finerenone (FIDELIO-DKD and FIGARO-DKD) were used alongside aggregated data from CREDENCE, an RCT of canagliflozin. To account for meaningful between-study heterogeneity between each finerenone trial and CREDENCE, a matching-adjusted indirect comparison of a range of efficacy outcomes was undertaken for each finerenone study versus CREDENCE. These results were meta-analyzed, enabling the estimation of the relative effects of finerenone against canagliflozin. For the cardiorenal composite endpoint, the hazard ratio (HR) comparing finerenone to canagliflozin was 1.07 (95% CI: 0.83 to 1.36). The corresponding HRs for all-cause mortality, end-stage kidney disease and cardiovascular death were 0.99 (95% CI: 0.73 to 1.34), 1.03 (95% CI: 0.68 to 1.55) and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.64 to 1.37), respectively. The absence of statistically significant differences was consistent throughout the main analysis and a range of sensitivity analyses. Based on this study, using a large sample of data and adjusted for meaningful differences between the baseline characteristics of the included RCTs, there was no statistically significant evidence indicating a difference in the efficacy of finerenone compared to canagliflozin in the treatment of CKD in patients with T2D.