SGLT2 diabetes & heart drugs
At a glance
- Medicare prescriptions, 2024
- 16,187,721
- Medicare drug cost
- $15.70B
- Average cost per prescription
- $970
- Clinicians who prescribed it
- 215,999
Where it is prescribed
What these drugs are
SGLT2 inhibitors are pills that make the kidneys remove sugar through the urine. They treat type 2 diabetes and are also used for heart failure and chronic kidney disease.
Who prescribes it
- Family Medicine 25.7%
- Internal Medicine 22.8%
- Nurse Practitioners 17.9%
- Endocrinology & Diabetes 8.0%
- Cardiology 6.7%
- Physician Assistants 5.8%
- Nephrology (Kidney) 5.1%
- Interventional Cardiology 2.1%
- General Practice 1.5%
- Geriatric Medicine 1.0%
- Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology 1.0%
- Hospitalist 0.4%
Share of Medicare prescriptions written by each specialty.
Drugs in this group
| Drug | Prescriptions |
|---|---|
| Empagliflozin (Jardiance) | 10,508,963 |
| Dapagliflozin Propanediol (Farxiga, Dapagliflozin) | 5,133,706 |
| Empagliflozin/Metformin Hcl (Synjardy Xr, Synjardy) | 319,536 |
| Canagliflozin (Invokana) | 114,951 |
| Empagliflozin/Linagliptin (Glyxambi) | 83,530 |
| Ertugliflozin Pidolate (Steglatro) | 14,315 |
| Canagliflozin/Metformin Hcl (Invokamet, Invokamet Xr) | 6,626 |
| Sotagliflozin (Inpefa) | 4,470 |
| Dapagliflozin/Saxagliptin Hcl (Qtern) | 905 |
| Ertugliflozin/Metformin (Segluromet) | 504 |
| Ertugliflozin/Sitagliptin Phos (Steglujan) | 306 |
Drugs filled in fewer than 1,000 counties have no page of their own; their national totals are shown here.
Industry payments about this drug
Drug makers reported $11.9M in payments to clinicians that named this group of drugs in 2025 (meals, speaking, consulting and similar).
- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. $5.8M
- AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP $3.1M
- Lilly USA, LLC $2.8M
- Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH $112,660
- AstraZeneca UK Limited $71,130
- Boehringer Ingelheim Rcv GmbH & Co Kg $66,165
- Eli Lilly and Company $26,970
- Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC $11,434
Source: CMS Open Payments, general payments (not research), program year 2025. A payment is not evidence of wrongdoing. Payments by doctor
Recalls and shortages
Not on the FDA drug shortage list.
4 recalls since 2020
- Mar 2023 · Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. · Class II
Labeling: Label Mix-up - Jan 2022 · Cardinal Healthcare · Class II
CGMP Deviations: Products were exposed to temperatures outside of the products labeled storage conditions. - Mar 2021 · Cardinal Health Inc. · Class II
CGMP Deviations: Intermittent exposure to temperature excursion during storage. - Mar 2021 · Cardinal Health Inc. · Class II
CGMP Deviations: Intermittent exposure to temperature excursion during storage.
Recalls usually affect specific lots from one maker, not every version of a drug. Class I is the most serious; most drug recalls are Class II. FDA recalls (opens in a new tab)
Sources: CMS Medicare Part D Prescribers by Provider and Drug (2024; prescriptions include refills, and CMS hides counts under 11 per prescriber); U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA (drug labels, NDC directory, enforcement reports, drug shortages); CMS Open Payments 2025; ClinicalTrials.gov. General information only, not medical advice; not yet reviewed by our medical reviewer.