A Bayesian analysis of finerenone in heart failure with mildly reduced and preserved ejection fraction: a pre-specified analysis of FINEARTS-HF

The non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor agonist (MRA) finerenone reduced heart failure events and cardiovascular death in patients with heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction (HFmrEF/HFpEF) in a frequentist analysis of the FINEARTS-HF trial. We applied Bayesian methods including prior information to provide probabilistic estimates of efficacy and safety. The aim of this study was to estimate the probability of different magnitudes of treatment benefit with finerenone vs. placebo using Bayesian analysis of FINEARTS-HF.

In this pre-specified Bayesian analysis, we estimated treatment efficacy incorporating prior information in a robust meta-analytic predictive (MAP) prior using data from two finerenone trials (FIDELIO-DKD and FIGARO-DKD) and a steroidal MRA spironolactone (TOPCAT). We compared results using vague priors and informative MAP priors. The primary outcome was cardiovascular death and total heart failure events. Among 6001 patients, Bayesian analysis with vague priors confirmed the frequentist results of a reduction in the rate of the primary outcome [RR 0.83; 95% credible interval (CrI) 0.74–0.94]. Incorporating prior evidence increased the posterior probability of a ≥ 10% reduction in the primary event rate from 90% to 92%. The probability that finerenone reduced cardiovascular death was 80% (HR 0.93, 95% CrI: 0.79–1.10), and all-cause mortality was 85% (HR 0.94, 95% CrI: 0.83–1.06). Finerenone increased the probability of hyperkalaemia and decreased the probability of hypokalaemia.

The non-steroidal MRA finerenone reduced the rate of cardiovascular death and total heart failure events under both frequentist and Bayesian inference methods. The probability of benefit exceeded 80% for both cardiovascular and all-cause mortality with finerenone.

Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04435626