* Victoza cuts heart complications and deaths in study
* Second diabetes drug to help heart after Jardiance
* Some investors had been hoping for bigger benefit (Adds reaction from executive and analyst)
By Ben Hirschler
June 14 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk's top-selling diabetes drug Victoza cut the risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death by 13 percent in a closely watched study that may encourage wider use of the blockbuster injectable medicine.
Victoza is only the second diabetes drug to show such heart benefits, after Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim's pill Jardiance. Victoza's effect was evident in all areas.
"To me, the impressive thing about this trial is the consistency across clinical endpoints and its robustness," said John Buse, professor of medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, who worked on the study.
He believes doctors' approach to type 2 diabetes treatment will now start to shift to a greater focus on minimising overall risks, rather than simply cutting blood sugar levels.
Because about half of deaths in people with diabetes are caused by heart disease, reducing heart risk is considered essential to their care.
But some investors had been hoping for a bigger effect. Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Holford said market expectations had for a mid- to high teens percent reduction in complications.
Novo, the world's biggest diabetes company, had said in March that Victoza cut heart risks "significantly" in the study but the scale of the benefit was only disclosed on Monday.
Researchers told the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) annual meeting that 13.0 percent of patients on Victoza died from cardiovascular causes or suffered non-fatal heart attacks or strokes, against 14.9 percent of those on placebo.
Deaths from heart disease were 22 percent lower in the Victoza group.
The Jardiance trial last year showed a similar 14 percent overall relative risk reduction and a 38 percent reduction in cardiovascular deaths.
The Victoza trial, known as Leader, had been designed to show Novo's drug did not increase heart risk, so its superiority is welcome news for the company, especially as Sanofi's rival Lyxumia failed to show heart benefits in an earlier test.
Victoza, which had sales of $2.7 billion last year, is the biggest seller in a class of drugs known as GLP-1 analogues that stimulate insulin production.
"I think physicians will look to GLP-1s with greater enthusiasm," Buse said in an interview.
Once-daily Victoza is typically prescribed as a third or fourth option after patients have first tried various oral medicines.