The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved a new medication called Kerendia (finerenone) for adults with chronic heart failure in the UK. This treatment is specifically for people who have symptoms of heart failure and whose heart pumps at least 40% of the blood with each beat. This includes two common types of heart failure: heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Together, these two types make up about half of all heart failure cases in the UK. Heart failure is a serious condition where the heart can’t pump blood as well as it should, leading to tiredness, shortness of breath, and other health problems.
Dr. Fozia Ahmed, a heart specialist at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, explained: ‘Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction are among the most difficult types of heart failure to treat in everyday medical practice. They affect a large number of patients in the NHS and are linked to high rates of hospital stays and deaths. Until recently, there were very few effective treatment options for people with these types of heart failure. The MHRA’s approval gives doctors another proven treatment to consider when managing heart failure in this large group of patients who have not had enough treatment options in the past.’
The approval of Kerendia is based on a large clinical study called the FINEARTS-HF study, which included 6,001 adults with symptoms of heart failure and a heart pumping ability of at least 40%. The study found that finerenone reduced the risk of heart-related death and heart failure events by 16% over an average of 32 months compared to a placebo (a harmless pill with no active ingredient). These benefits were seen in all groups of patients studied, and the medication was generally well tolerated with few side effects.
Finerenone is the first non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist—a type of drug—that has shown clear benefits in a large study for people with these types of heart failure. Over one million people in the UK are living with heart failure, and those with preserved ejection fraction have particularly poor outcomes, making this approval an important step forward in treatment.