Giving diabetes patients Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s drug Actos not only lowers their blood sugar levels but also protects them from heart attacks, researchers said on Monday.
A 5,200-patient clinical study found that Actos, when added to standard therapy, reduced the combined risk of heart attacks, strokes and death by 16 percent in high-risk people with type II diabetes, compared to conventional therapy alone.
Actos, which is co-promoted by Eli Lilly and Co., belongs to a class of medicines called insulin sensitisers that also includes GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Avandia.
They work by making the body’s cells more sensitive to insulin, thereby helping people with type II, or adult-onset, diabetes to better use their own natural insulin.
The results of the trial on Actos, which is known by the chemical name pioglitazone, were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes congress in Athens.
Professor John Dormandy of St. George’s Hospital, London, the chairman of the trial, said the results suggested that 10 to 11 heart attacks, strokes or deaths could be prevented for every 500 high-risk patients treated with Actos over three years.
Industry analysts said the success of the clinical study would help Actos increase its market share and might also have a positive knock-on impact on Avandia, if doctors decide the benefits are due to a drug class effect.
The finding is a welcome boost at a time when competition is set to increase, after a U.S. advisory panel on Friday recommended approval of a new diabetes pill, Pargluva, from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Merck & Co. Inc.
