Two diabetes drugs linked to fewer heart failure events or deaths
Acute heart failure events or deaths over 12 months occurred in 19.3% versus 25.0% for semaglutide and 14.7% versus 25.3% for tirzepatide, compared with other diabetes drugs.
4,394 participants
Limit: Drug doses and detailed adverse-event rates were not reported
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Adults with heart failure, type 2 diabetes and a recorded left ventricular ejection fraction—the share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber ejects with each beat—were included in this observational study. Researchers used electronic health records to emulate clinical trials, matching new users of each drug with new users of sitagliptin or linagliptin, other diabetes drugs.
The semaglutide comparison included 3,135 people per group; the tirzepatide comparison included 1,523 per group. Both drugs were associated with a lower risk of an acute heart failure event or death from any cause over 12 months. The links held across three categories of heart-pumping function. Severe abnormal rhythms in the heart’s lower chambers were not increased. A separate comparison of 4,394 people per group found no statistically clear difference between tirzepatide and semaglutide.
Why it matters
For an age-related disease such as heart failure, the findings support the authors’ call for randomized trials testing these drugs across different levels of heart-pumping function.
Caveats
This observational study cannot establish that the drugs caused the lower risks. The congress abstract covered adults with both heart failure and type 2 diabetes and did not report doses or detailed adverse-event rates.
The paper
Schleswig-Holstein University Clinic
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
