DaVita says news of Ozempic’s potential in treating kidney disease may have only limited impact for patients, says further studies will be needed

Dialysis company DaVita Inc.
DVA,
+1.79%
issued a statement on Thursday in response to the news Wednesday from Novo Nordisk that its Ozempic treatment for type 2 diabetes delayed the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and lowered the risk of kidney and cardiovascular mortality in a trial. The news that the Danish company had halted the trial because of its efficacy sent the stocks of dialysis companies, including DaVita, lower on Wednesday. “We’ve been closely monitoring the developments related to GLP-1s, and are excited about the potential benefits this class of drugs could have on society and patients with kidney disease,” said DaVita Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jeff Giullian in a statement. However, while it’s almost impossible to draw conclusions from the study as the results have yet to be released, “based on the inclusion criteria for study participants, we believe there may be limited application of the FLOW study findings to the overall CKD patient population,” he said. That’s because patients enrolled in the study were required to have a rare combination of factors, including Type 2 diabetes, CKD and had to show a a requisite amount of proteinuria, or protein in the urine. The trial also had a composite endpoint comprised of five separate endpoints and it’s not clear which one was positive so as to close the study. Future trials will be required to confirm the study’s findings, he said. DaVita stock was up 1.8% premarket, but is down 15% in the week to date after Wednesday’s rout.