A glucose-lowering medication has been found to have striking benefits in reducing the risk of kidney failure in patients with type 2 diabetes, an Australian-led study has found.

And research leaders believe the renal benefits may be common to other drugs in the SGLT-2 inhibitor class.

Researchers from the George Institute for Global Health analysed data from 4400 patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease to determine whether canagliflozin could improve both renal and cardiovascular outcomes.

They found that, compared with placebo, patients taking canagliflozin experienced a 30% lower relative risk of the primary outcome, which was end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the serum creatinine or death from renal or cardiovascular causes.