SURPASS-CVOT Analysis: Tirzepatide's Edge Over Dulaglutide on Death and Heart Failure Events Held in Patients Who Already Had Heart Failure
An exploratory analysis of Lilly's SURPASS-CVOT trial, published October 15, 2026 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, compared tirzepatide (up to 15 mg) with dulaglutide (1.5 mg) over about four years in people with type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic heart disease, 20.3% of whom had a history of heart failure. In that heart failure group, tirzepatide was linked to a lower rate of death or heart failure hospitalization or urgent visits (hazard ratio 0.83) and of MACE-4, a composite that adds coronary revascularization (0.81), with similar but weaker trends in people without heart failure. The authors called the analysis exploratory, since the trial's main result was noninferiority.