Research News
FLOW tested semaglutide 1 mg in diabetic kidney disease, not the obesity dose
Perkovic and colleagues reported fewer major kidney-disease events with weekly semaglutide 1 mg in adults who already had type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
The FLOW trial asked a kidney question in people who already had type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Participants were assigned to subcutaneous semaglutide 1.0 mg once weekly or placebo. That is the diabetes dose in this protocol, not the 2.4 mg obesity dose used in SELECT. The two trials do not share a population, and they should not share a sentence.
What was counted
Among 3,533 people randomized, median follow-up was 3.4 years. The primary outcome combined kidney failure, a large loss of kidney filtration, and death from kidney or cardiovascular causes. First events were 331 with semaglutide and 410 with placebo. The hazard ratio was 0.76, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 0.66 to 0.88. The registry number is NCT03819153.
The limit that matters
The paper’s kidney result does not transfer to a person without diabetes, to a different weekly dose, or to a vial that was never in the trial. Read the eligibility criteria, especially the ranges for filtration rate and albumin in the urine, before quoting the hazard ratio on its own.