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Latest Type 2 Medications Articles
Type 2 Diabetes Medications Article Archives
August 2011
Low doses of metformin and rosiglitazone seem to delay the onset of type 2 in prediabetic people who have impaired glucose tolerance, according to a Canadian study. However, although the drug combination was effective over the first year of the study in helping to control glucose levels and insulin resistance, it was not effective subsequently in delaying the onset of insulin resistance and pancreatic beta cell deterioration.
0 comments - Posted Aug 7, 2011
A Boston-based study has found that vitamin D supplements can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in people with prediabetes by improving their beta cell functioning.
0 comments - Posted Aug 3, 2011
July 2011
Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly have begun sales of Tradjenta, a drug for type 2 diabetes, in U.S. pharmacies. The drug (generic name linagliptin) comes in tablet form and is intended to compete with Amylin Pharmaceuticals' Byetta, which is injected, and Merck's Januvia, which also competes with Byetta. Both are well-established in the U.S. market.
0 comments - Posted Jul 27, 2011
June 2011
One of the classic effects of cannabis on people is raging hunger-the "marijuana munchies." The drug has been used to good effect on people with diseases that diminish appetite, helping them to regain a healthy interest in food. So it is a bit ironic that British drug maker GW Pharmaceuticals has created a cross-bred cannabis plant whose appetite-suppressing qualities could be used to treat type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 30, 2011
March 2011
Tony Flores is a 50-year-old native of El Salvador who works as a construction foreman. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 12 years ago, after an eye doctor told him it would be a good idea to get his blood sugar checked. He recalls, "I did the test, and they got all freaked out and told me, ‘Oh my god, your A1C is at 12%. You have diabetes type 2. You've got to cut the sugar, you've got to stop drinking orange juice and soda."
0 comments - Posted Mar 15, 2011
February 2011
Ellen Granberg is an obesity sociologist who studies the processes that people go through when they lose weight and keep it off. As she says, "If the problem were that we don't know what people should eat to lose weight, that would be one thing, but we don't have that problem. There are a hundred weight loss plans out there that are perfectly good. We understand all about the physiology of weight loss maintenance and the metabolic impacts, but nothing about the social and emotional impacts. People who sustain weight loss over time move through a lot of different challenges."
0 comments - Posted Feb 27, 2011
Ross Valley Pharmacy, tucked away inside a larger building of clinics, is not a big place, but it's very very busy. Its owner, Paul Lofholm, PharmD, has a vision of the pharmacist's role that goes far beyond simply putting pills in bottles. He sees pharmacists as integral members of the healthcare team who can fill the gaps in patients' education about their conditions and their medications.
0 comments - Posted Feb 21, 2011
Nearly one in six people in the United States has no health insurance. If you have diabetes, that's a very tough position to be in. There are, however, resources that can cut the costs that you have been paying out of pocket for medicines and supplies.
0 comments - Posted Feb 14, 2011
January 2011
Most type 2 meds work by increasing insulin production in one way or another. The extra insulin lowers blood sugar by ushering it out of your bloodstream and into your cells, where it may, unfortunately, make you fat. Wouldn't it be nice if instead, you could lower your high blood sugar by just flushing it right down the toilet?
0 comments - Posted Jan 17, 2011
The Diabetes Research Institute Foundation (DRIF) announced a new, first-of-its-kind partnership aimed at helping the more than 200,000* Broward County, Florida, residents affected by diabetes. Diabetes Research Institute Live Well Broward County is a joint effort of the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, Walgreens in South Florida, LifeScan and a cadre of local physicians that will help residents "Manage Well, Stay Well and Live Well" with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 12, 2011
Sitagliptin (Januvia) has long been used to reduce blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, but a new study indicates that it can do the same for those with type 1 diabetes. Sitagliptin is a DPP-4 inhibitor; that is, it inhibits, or temporarily prevents, the enzyme DPP-4 from destroying a helpful hormone called GLP-1. GLP-1, which is released by the gut when food arrives there from the stomach, lowers blood sugar by causing the release of insulin, reducing the secretion of glucagon, and slowing stomach emptying and nutrient absorption.
0 comments - Posted Jan 7, 2011
September 2010
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it will significantly restrict the use of the diabetes drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) to patients with Type 2 diabetes who cannot control their diabetes on other medications. These new restrictions are in response to data that suggest an elevated risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke, in patients treated with Avandia.
0 comments - Posted Sep 23, 2010
August 2010
NaturEra, (http://www.NaturEra.com) a dietary supplements emerging leader, this month announced the launch of its new Sugar Crush dietary supplements would take place at the American Association of Diabetes Educators meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Sugar Crush research has been accepted for Poster presentation at the AADE meeting. The full clinical research study (http://www.naturera.com/Manuscript.pdf) shows that NaturEra's 'Sugar Crush' and 'Sugar Crush Daily' dietary supplement formulas used in combination lower and maintain healthy blood sugar levels for people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Aug 26, 2010
Novo Nordisk presented results demonstrating that once-daily Victoza® (liraglutide [rDNA] injection) achieved significantly greater improvements in blood sugar control compared to placebo among African-American patients with type 2 diabetes. The meta-analysis of phase 3 data from the Liraglutide Effect and Action in Diabetes (LEAD) trials were presented at the 2010 National Medical Association Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly.
0 comments - Posted Aug 5, 2010
July 2010
A long-term study on the safety of a popular diabetes drug was put on hold Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration, while the FDA considers whether it's too dangerous to continue. Several large studies have linked the drug, Avandia, to a higher risk of heart attacks and other heart problems. While other studies have not found the same risk, last week an FDA advisory panel recommended that the drug not be sold without a stronger warning label or possibly limits on who could receive it.
0 comments - Posted Jul 23, 2010
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Joint Meeting of the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee and Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee has completed their evaluation of the scientific research available on the safety of rosiglitazone. The deliberations of the panel reflected the complexity of the issues, with several members voting to add additional warnings or to withdraw the drug from the U.S. market. Ultimately, the final recommendation was to allow Avandia to remain on the market. Now that the expert panel has concluded its meeting, the FDA will review their recommendations and make the final decision on whether the drug remains available to patients.
0 comments - Posted Jul 15, 2010
Data from the massive ACCORD study on intensive blood sugar control shows that lowering blood sugar levels in people with longstanding type 2 diabetes to near-normal may delay the appearance of signs that point to damage to nerves, eyes, and kidneys, but does not stop their progression toward it.
0 comments - Posted Jul 9, 2010
June 2010
If you take metformin to control your type 2 diabetes, ask your doctor to take a look at your vitamin B-12 levels when you get a chance. A recent British study shows that metformin may cause a deficiency in the vitamin, which is necessary for the regeneration of red blood cells and the maintenance of nervous system health.
0 comments - Posted Jun 5, 2010
May 2010
People with diabetes who have limited health literacy are at higher risk for hypoglycemia or low blood sugar, according to a new study from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, CA.
0 comments - Posted May 20, 2010
February 2010
A U.S. Senate Finance Committee report released on February 20 says that Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline's drug for type 2 diabetes, may have caused as many as 83,000 heart attacks between 1999, when the drug was introduced, and 2007. The Senate report, culminating a two-year inquiry into the drug, also says that Glaxo knew about the drug's potential risks years before suspicions began to form regarding a connection between Avandia and heart problems.
0 comments - Posted Feb 22, 2010
Denmark-based Novo Nordisk has begun a Phase 1 trial of a pill form of a GLP-1 drug very similar to its Victoza product. The trial will involve 155 British patients with type 2 diabetes. The test on human subjects, although very early-stage, puts the company in the lead to develop an oral form of a GLP-1 drug.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2010
October 2009
A study coming out in the November issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology is reporting that type 2 men whose blood contained a high count of eosinophils, a sign of allergic inflammation, also had albumin in their urine, which is an early indication of kidney disease. Eosinophils are white blood cells that increase in number during an allergic reaction. Albumin is a protein in the blood that helps regulate blood volume and acts as a carrier for other molecules. Albumin is not normally found in the urine, however, because when healthy kidneys filter the blood, they retain what the body needs (like proteins) and allow only smaller "impurities" into the urine. But during diabetes, too much blood sugar can damage the filtering structures of the kidneys, causing them to thicken and become scarred. Eventually, they begin to leak, and protein (albumin) begins to pass into the urine.
0 comments - Posted Oct 6, 2009
June 2009
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has learned that some stolen vials of the long-acting insulin Levemir made by Novo Nordisk Inc. have reappeared and are being sold in the U.S. market. Three lots or a total of 129,000 vials of this product were stolen in all. These stolen insulin vials may not have been stored and handled properly and may be dangerous for patients to use.
0 comments - Posted Jun 22, 2009
May 2009
The European Union's drug regulation agency has recommended that the EU approve the marketing of "Victoza" (liraglutide), a type 2 drug developed by Novo Nordisk.
0 comments - Posted May 6, 2009
March 2009
The FDA has announced that starting in early April, its Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee will begin looking into two new drugs for type 2 diabetes: saxagliptin tablets from Bristol-Meyers Squibb and liraglutide, an injection drug from Novo Nordisk.
0 comments - Posted Mar 24, 2009
A complex sugar derived from glucose during the body’s metabolic processes could be a way to reliably detect a pre-diabetes condition, say researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. If it does, the “biomarker” (an indicator of an organism’s state of health) could provide enough early warning that patients nearing the onset of type 2 diabetes could take steps to slow or even halt it through lifestyle changes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 3, 2009
February 2009
DM-99, a drug under development by the Canadian drug company DiaMedica, Inc., has just finished a phase 2a "proof of concept" trial with 40 type 2 patients in Europe. Although the company did not release performance figures from the trial, it found them sufficiently encouraging to move further into phase 2 testing.
0 comments - Posted Feb 26, 2009
Data from a phase 3 study of the Novo Nordisk drug liraglutide shows that when it is used in combination with glimepiride, it is more effective at reducing A1c's than glimepiride by itself or glimepiride in combination with the drug rosiglitazone.
0 comments - Posted Feb 19, 2009
January 2009
We first reported on salsalate, an aspirin-like drug discovered in the nineteenth century, last October. At that time, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston discovered that it appears to reduce inflammation and lower blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 27, 2009
Two diets - one severely restricting carbohydrate intake but with no limit on calories, and the other emphasizing low-glycemic carbohydrates and low calories - allowed high percentages of obese type 2 patients in a university study to reduce or even eliminate their diabetes medications (95.2 percent of the patients on the extreme low-carb diet and 62.1 percent of the patients on the low-glycemic diet).
0 comments - Posted Jan 14, 2009
December 2008
The Chinese mentioned cinnamon in their written work more than 4,000 years ago. The ancient Egyptians used cinnamon in their embalming process, and the Roman writer/philosopher Pliny the Elder wrote in the first century AD that cinnamon was worth 15 times more than silver of the same weight.
0 comments - Posted Dec 25, 2008
November 2008
No one knows better than people with diabetes how expensive prescription drugs are. A recent DH article reported that the annual cost for drugs to treat type 2 diabetes nearly doubled between 2001 and 2007, skyrocketing from $6.7 billion to $12.5 billion six years later.
0 comments - Posted Nov 17, 2008
Metformin, the tried-and-true diabetes drug that is prescribed to many type 2s when they are first diagnosed, may decrease the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. That's the conclusion of a meta-analysis by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.
0 comments - Posted Nov 3, 2008
The annual cost for drugs to treat type 2 diabetes nearly doubled between 2001 and 20, skyrocketing from $6.7 billion in 2001 to $12.5 billion six years later, according to researchers from Stanford University and the University of Chicago.
0 comments - Posted Nov 3, 2008
September 2008
At the recent 44th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), sanofi-aventis announced a study demonstrating that a basal-bolus insulin regimen with Lantus® once daily (basal insulin) and rapid-acting Apidra® (insulin glulisine [rDNA origin] injection) at mealtime (bolus insulin) resulted in significant A1c reductions from baseline as compared to pre-mixed insulin in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Sep 29, 2008
August 2008
Several months ago researchers suspended work on the landmark ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) study, which tracked 10,251 type 2s, some of them undergoing very tight control of their blood sugar levels.
0 comments - Posted Aug 14, 2008
At the beginning of 2007, we began studying guidebooks and making reservations for a long-anticipated trip to New Zealand and Australia. With limited funds and so much we wanted to do, we decided our budget would go farther if we stayed at hostels. At the same time, we were concerned about Al’s rising blood sugar scores. After visiting relatives during Christmas and celebrating the New Year, Al’s morning scores were as high as 154 mg/dl.
0 comments - Posted Aug 14, 2008
July 2008
San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., posted a second-quarter loss of $64.8 million, or 47 cents per share. This compares to a 2007 second-quarter loss of 45 million, or 34 cents a share.
0 comments - Posted Jul 31, 2008
A new Spanish language consumer guide to type 2 diabetes, called “Pastillas para la diabetes tipo 2,” has been released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The guide provides information on how to control type 2 and includes comparisons of oral medications. AHRQ data show that nearly one in eight Hispanics takes a prescription drug for diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 25, 2008
Metformin, combined with dietary changes and exercise, seems to help obese pre-diabetic adolescents, especially girls, lose weight, says a report in the June 2008 Journal of Pediatrics.
0 comments - Posted Jul 10, 2008
June 2008
Drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk has applied to the U.S. Federal Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for approval of liraglutide, a human GLP-1 analog* that is taken once daily for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jun 19, 2008
May 2008
Editor's Note: This week's letter is from Joan Hoover, one of our favorite and most outspoken board members. Joan is also our patient advocate advisor. She is a tireless diabetes educator and advocate for people's access to clear, accurate, and unbiased information about the disease. When Joan speaks, we sit up and listen! Her letter is addressed to Editor-in-Chief Scott King and Diabetes Health pharmacy advisory board member R. Keith Campbell. Campbell had commented favorably on news that a doctor had successfully treated obesity in children by prescribing amphetamines.
0 comments - Posted May 22, 2008
It has long been known that type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity, particularly fat inside the belly. Now, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have found that fat from other areas of the body can actually reduce insulin resistance and improve insulin sensitivity.
0 comments - Posted May 22, 2008
Glucose-controlling metformin, the generic drug that is the first medication for many newly diagnosed type 2s, could soon be available in a chewing gum.
0 comments - Posted May 15, 2008
April 2008
Since its introduction in 2005, Byetta has become “the talk of the town” as one of the most powerful, yet benign, diabetes drugs of the 21st century.
0 comments - Posted Apr 2, 2008
February 2008
To successfully treat diabetes, you must take charge of your own diabetes management. You need to know your medications, and you need to know your pharmacist. But that kind of intimate knowledge has become a lot more complex in the past decade.
0 comments - Posted Feb 12, 2008
After seeing an increase in deaths among type 2 participants, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has halted the intense blood sugar control portion of its years-long study on controlling cardiovascular risks to people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 8, 2008
SK: We’re joined on our show by Craig Eberhard, vice president of sales at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Hey, Craig, thanks for coming on the show. Amylin has one of the most innovative products that I’ve heard of in years. It’s called Byetta.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2008
December 2007
In a recent randomized study, 69 people with type 2 diabetes who were already taking metformin were given either Byetta or Lantus for a full year. When the results were in, Byetta came out ahead on several fronts.
0 comments - Posted Dec 11, 2007
November 2007
I learned that I had type 2 diabetes in February 1994. A dozen years later, I knew I had to make a change. Technically speaking, I was "morbidly obese." I'm tall - 6 feet, 2½ inches - but I tipped the scales at 312 pounds and had a body mass index (BMI) of 40.
0 comments - Posted Nov 28, 2007
Many medications, both oral and injectable, exist to manage blood glucose in type 2 diabetes. Even insulin has many different formulations, including fast-acting and long-acting analogs as well as various pre-mixed combinations of faster and slower acting insulins in the same vial.
0 comments - Posted Nov 27, 2007
Over the course of the year, we meticulously update all our charts to bring you the most accurate information about hundreds of products, services, and medications. Now we've gathered every one of those charts, from humble lancets to sophisticated continuous glucose monitors, into one handy place.
0 comments - Posted Nov 26, 2007
Most diabetes drug trials focus strictly on the medication's effect on blood sugar levels, but ignore that medication's impact on other outcomes that are important to patients, such as quality of life and the risk of complications.
0 comments - Posted Nov 22, 2007
Januvia, also known as sitagliptin phosphate, is a DPP-IV inhibitor. It prevents, or inhibits, DPP-IV from inactivating GLP-1. GLP-1 is a naturally produced hormone that increases insulin secretion in response to food.
0 comments - Posted Nov 20, 2007
A recent study has found that the combination of metformin and sitagliptin lowers A1c's better than either drug alone, apparently because their different mechanisms work together synergistically.
0 comments - Posted Nov 12, 2007
The FDA has received thirty reports of acute pancreatitis (rapid-onset inflammation of the pancreas) in type 2 patients taking Byetta. Twenty-seven of the thirty patients had one or more risk factors for acute pancreatitis, such as gallstones or alcohol use.
0 comments - Posted Nov 5, 2007
October 2007
The FDA has spoken: the heart risk warnings on labels of Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) will now be surrounded by an emphatic black outline known as a black box. Black boxes will also be added to the warnings on Avandaryl (rosiglitazone and glimepiride), Avandamet (rosiglitazone and metformin), and Duetact (pioglitazone and glimepiride).
0 comments - Posted Oct 31, 2007
According to Greek researchers, Actos and Avandia were behind a tripling of the cost of medicines used to treat Athenians with type 2 diabetes over the past eight years.
0 comments - Posted Oct 10, 2007
The September 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has published two new studies, one a meta-analysis of Avandia (rosiglitazone) and the other a meta-analysis of Actos (pioglitazone).
0 comments - Posted Oct 5, 2007
September 2007
In two recent studies, WelChol, a drug already approved for lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol was found to lower A1c's in patients with type 2 diabetes. The first study showed that WelChol, when added to insulin, lowered A1c's by an average of 0.5% compared to a placebo group.
0 comments - Posted Sep 26, 2007
August 2007
Americans spend 275 billion dollars on prescription medicines every single year, sixty percent of it on generics. But in the next five years, the twenty-year patents are going to expire on enough brand-name medicines to account for about 60 billion dollars of that total. And the generics that spring up to replace those drugs will be thirty to eighty percent cheaper.
0 comments - Posted Aug 26, 2007
MedPage Today, a medical news service for physicians, has published the results of a reader poll about Avandia attitudes. Only nine percent of respondents said they would continue prescribing it without reservations, and one in four said it should be taken off the market.
0 comments - Posted Aug 23, 2007
A meta-analysis of 29 studies, none longer than six months, has shown that incretin therapies (like Byetta and Januvia) are moderately effective in lowering blood glucose in people with type 2 diabetes, especially after meals.
0 comments - Posted Aug 16, 2007
That old standby, metformin, is still your best bet. In fact, there is no benefit in taking the newer oral medications unless you can't tolerate the older ones.
0 comments - Posted Aug 8, 2007
It's a complex mental process that your doctors go through when they choose your medicines, according to a recent survey of several hundred physicians.
0 comments - Posted Aug 2, 2007
On July 30, 2007, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel voted 22 to 1 to keep Avandia on the market, right after agreeing by a vote of 20 to 3 that Avandia does increase heart risks. Now the FDA will decide what kind of warning should appear on the Actos and Avandia labels. It has already called for a black box warning, the sternest possible, on Avandia.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2007
July 2007
It's a fact that Byetta reduces A1c's, post-meal and fasting glucose levels, and weight in people with type 2 diabetes. The drawback is that it's another injection twice a day. In response, Amylin, the maker of Byetta, has developed exenatide LAR, a form of Byetta that is injected only once a week.
0 comments - Posted Jul 13, 2007
In a congressional hearing on June 13, 2007, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed that it has called for a black box warning, the sternest possible, on both Actos and Avandia.
0 comments - Posted Jul 12, 2007
June 2007
As many of us know to our dismay, the desire to chow down fatty, sugary food can be very strong indeed. In a recent six-week study of 88 obese, non-diabetic men and women, Symlin, a synthetic hormone currently used to dampen diabetic blood sugar swings, was found to dampen those very desires.
0 comments - Posted Jun 27, 2007
A study from the Mayo Clinic has found that using a decision-making tool with patients when discussing medication options makes them more likely to take their prescribed medicine.
0 comments - Posted Jun 26, 2007
Medco, a pharmacy benefit managing company, has released its 2007 Drug Trend Report, and diabetes drugs are big news. The report projects that between 2007 and 2009, there could be a near 70 percent increase in spending on endocrine and diabetes drugs.
0 comments - Posted Jun 8, 2007
May 2007
Analysis of several recent studies indicates that Avandia (rosiglitazone), a type 2 diabetes medication that's been taken by more than six million people worldwide, is associated with a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack and with a borderline-significant increased risk of heart attack-related death.
0 comments - Posted May 31, 2007
The recent ruckus over the drug rosiglitazone (Avandia) has been portrayed as another case of Big Pharma foisting a dangerous drug on the public while the overworked FDA can't keep up.
0 comments - Posted May 31, 2007
A drug initially designed to treat the autoimmune disease of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis has been found helpful in treating type 2 diabetes. The drug is an “interleukin-1-receptor antagonist” that goes by the name of anakinra (Kineret).
0 comments - Posted May 16, 2007
INDIANAPOLIS Data from a pooled analysis of three studies suggest that in patients with pain caused by diabetic nerve damage, or diabetic peripheral neuropathy, who are treated with Cymbalta (duloxetine HCl), improvements in both average daily pain and night pain severity were associated with less pain-related sleep interference than in those patients taking sugar pill.
0 comments - Posted May 15, 2007
The FDA and GlaxoSmithKline, Avandia’s manufacturer, have advised doctors to carefully consider fracture risk before beginning Avandia therapy for women with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted May 14, 2007
The 21st century may be remembered as the time when diabetes became a worldwide epidemic. However, it may also be known as the time when the disease was cured.
0 comments - Posted May 3, 2007
April 2007
A lot of new medicines have come out, with a pile of new acronyms: GLP-1, DPP-4, BYOB…well, that last one is probably familiar, but a little background on the other two might not be out of place. You’re going to be seeing a lot more of them in the future, and it’ll help to be on speaking terms.
0 comments - Posted Apr 20, 2007
The FDA has approved Janumet, Merck’s merge of metformin and Januvia into one pill, for use with type 2 diabetes in the United States. Januvia (sitagliptin) is a DPP-4 inhibitor that works by enhancing the incretin system, a natural process that lowers blood sugar.
0 comments - Posted Apr 20, 2007
Whitehouse Station, N.J., March 26, 2007 – JANUVIA™ (sitagliptin1), Merck & Co., Inc.'s once-a-day oral treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, has been granted a license from the European Commission. JANUVIA now becomes the first and only medication in a new class of drugs known as dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4 inhibitors), which enhance the body’s own ability to lower blood sugar when it is elevated, to be adopted by the European Commission.
0 comments - Posted Apr 18, 2007
In December 2006, the injected medication Byetta was approved by the FDA for people with type 2 diabetes who are taking a thiazolidinedione (TZD), but don’t have good control of their blood sugar.
0 comments - Posted Apr 14, 2007
Actress Delta Burke, best known for her role as the zaftig Susanne Sugerbaker in the television show Designing Women, is the new spokeswoman for the Byetta Let’s Talk campaign, sponsored by Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company. She’s a Byetta user herself who has lost twenty pounds while on the medication.
0 comments - Posted Apr 4, 2007
Ask yourself: Do I know someone who consistently reaches for a donut over oatmeal, has a standing date with their TV instead of the gym or prefers high-calorie, high-fat fast food to healthy meals? If you answered yes, you may know someone who has type 2 diabetes or is at high risk for developing it.
0 comments - Posted Apr 4, 2007
March 2007
Q: Are there any long-term side effects of the popular drugs to treat type 2 diabetes?
0 comments - Posted Mar 24, 2007
A 24-week study compared the effectiveness and safety of Galvus (vildagliptin), a DPP-4 inhibitor, with Avandia (rosiglitazone), a thiazolidinedione, in a double-blind, randomized, controlled, multi-center study. Both drugs had similar effects on A1c’s: Galvus reduced A1c by 1.1 %, and Avandia reduced A1c by 1. 3%. Most notably, patients did not gain weight with Galvus, but gained an average of 3.4 pounds with Avandia.
0 comments - Posted Mar 16, 2007
Compared to the volumes of research lavished on the development of useful medicines, there is not much study devoted to whether people actually take that medicine or not. Obviously, the best medicine in the world doesn’t do any good if it’s not taken. And according to evidence presented at American Heart Association 2006 Scientific Sessions, people just aren’t taking their medicine like they should.
0 comments - Posted Mar 15, 2007
February 2007
Data presented at the October 2006 Annual Scientific Meeting of NAASO, The Obesity Society, found that 60 milligrams of orlistat (Xenical), in conjunction with a reduced-calorie diet, provided significantly greater reductions in LDL cholesterol and weight when compared to treatment with a placebo and a reduced-calorie diet.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
The addition of niacin to existing medical regimens for patients with heart disease and well-controlled LDL levels improves inflammatory markers, according to researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
In September 2006, Walmart Corporation announced a new prescription drug program that will offer a list of 291 generic drugs selling for $4 for a 30-day supply.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
According to Reuters Health, a study appearing in the October 2006 issue of European Heart Journal found that people with diabetes who have suffered a heart attack or episode of severe angina benefit just as much from treatment with statins as those without diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Asian researchers say there is an increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency associated with metformin use.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Oral-lyn, a new insulin spray made by Generex Biotechnology Corporation, has received the 2006 Technology Award for Innovation in the field of diabetic therapies from Frost and Sullivan, a market research company.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
A particular regimen Dutch researchers call the GAME regimen provides long-term BG control with less weight gain.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Patients with high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes benefit from taking an angiotensin-convertingenzyme (ACE) inhibitor to lower blood pressure—even if they have no evidence of kidney or heart disease.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Novartis reports that there will be a three-month delay in approval for its experimental diabetes drug, Galvus, due to the FDA’s request for additional safety data.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
“Among persons with impaired fasting glucose levels or impaired glucose tolerance, the use of ramipril [Altace] for three years does not significantly reduce the incidence of diabetes or death.”
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
Zinc plays a role in the synthesis and action of insulin in the body. Insulin, obviously, plays a critical role in diabetes. But does zinc, then, play a critical role in diabetes prevention? There’s no evidence of that, according to a review of the scientific literature published in January 2007 by the Cochrane Library, which found nothing to suggest that zinc supplementation is useful in the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
It’s not easy to navigate the crowded waters of type 2 oral medications. There are dozens of them, and their names have a lot in common with tongue twisters. They’re hard to pronounce, and harder to remember. But they’re necessary. Of the 20 million Americans with diabetes, 90 to 95 percent have type 2. Although some people with diabetes are able to manage their condition through diet and exercise alone, the majority cannot control their blood sugar without medication. According to the CDC, among adults diagnosed with diabetes, 57% take oral medication; 16% take insulin; 12% take both insulin and oral medication; and only 15% take neither insulin nor oral medication.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
December 2006
On October 17, 2006, the oral medication Januvia (sitagliptin phosphate) was granted approval by the FDA. Januvia is the first diabetes treatment approved in a new class of drugs known as DDP-4 inhibitors that enhances the body’s own ability to lower elevated blood sugar.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2006
September 2006
Reducing Inner Body Fat Is the Key to Metabolic Improvement After Weight Loss
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
August 2006
Byetta, which came on the market last year, was developed to help people with type 2 diabetes who weren’t getting adequate blood glucose control using other drugs. Any associated weight loss was only incidental.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
1. How do these oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs) work?
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
July 2006
GlaxoSmithKline announced the availability of Avandaryl (rosiglitazone maleate and glimepiride), a new fixed-dose combination product for type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2006
According to a January 5, 2006, posting on its Web site (www.fda.gov), GlaxoSmithKline and the FDA have notified healthcare professionals about post-marketing reports of new-onset and worsening diabetic macular edema for patients receiving Avandia.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2006
May 2006
By October of this year, Merck & Co., Inc., expects the FDA to rule on its novel type 2 drug Januvia (sitagliptin phosphate). On February 15, 2006, the FDA accepted Merck’s New Drug Application (NDA) for Januvia for standard review.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2006
April 2006
New Zealand researchers say that in clinical trials of people with type 2 diabetes, Actos as stand-alone therapy or in combination with metformin, repaglinide, insulin or a sulphonylurea induced “both long- and short-term improvements in [blood glucose] control and serum lipid profiles.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
February 2006
Researchers have discovered that the type 2 drug Avandia improved exercise function in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2006
January 2006
It was the belle of the ball at last summer’s ADA Scientific Sessions in San Diego. Now it appears that muraglitazar (Pargluva) is clinging to life after a scathing report recently published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2006
Exenatide (Byetta) and insulin glargine (Lantus) achieve similar improvements in overall blood glucose control in people with type 2 diabetes who were not being controlled sufficiently on oral combination therapy.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2006
December 2005
Glumetza, a once-daily extended-release formulation of metformin hydrochloride, was granted FDA approval in June 2005 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2005
Japanese researchers say that adolescents and young adults who have poor blood glucose control can add one more weapon to their control arsenal: a type 2 drug.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2005
November 2005
In August 2005, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc., announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved ACTOplus Met for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2005
A Dutch study found that in people with type 2, the drug Avandia improved metabolism of large triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and decreased after-meal free fatty acid metabolism concentrations.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2005
October 2005
Actos (pioglitazone HCl) is an oral agent for type 2 diabetes belonging to the thiazolidinedione (TZD) class of drugs. TZDs help lower insulin resistance, a core dysfunction in people with type 2. They act by helping the body use its available amounts of insulin more effectively. Actos is known as an “insulin sensitizer” because it directly targets insulin resistance, a condition in which the body cannot use the insulin it produces efficiently.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
One of the most alarming studies to be published in recent years was the prediction that one in three children born after the year 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes during his or her lifetime.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
September 2005
Overweight type 1s may improve their blood glucose control without increasing their insulin dosage by supplementing their control regimen with the type 2 insulin-sensitizing drug Avandia (rosiglitazone), say Dallas, Texas, researchers.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
Actos, an insulin sensitizer in the glitazone class of type 2 oral diabetes medications, was found to reduce carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) as well as insulin resistance in a German study.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2005
August 2005
Metformin activates the enzyme AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase), which promotes muscles to take up glucose from the blood. It was recently discovered that the upstream regulator of AMPK is a protein kinase called LKB1, known to be a tumor suppressor.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2005
In the years prior to 1995, there was only one type of oral medication to treat type 2 diabetes. Today, diabetes practitioners can choose from many classes of oral agents. Each group may be used alone or in combination, depending on the individual and his or her history, disease stage, complications, side effects of the drugs and finances.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2005
July 2005
“People who are no longer successful on oral agents can now add Byetta [exenatide] instead of insulin,” says Anne Peters, MD, director of the USC Clinical Diabetes Programs.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2005
March 2005
Relief may be on the way for the estimated five million Americans suffering from diabetes-related neuropathy pain—a stabbing, shooting, burning pain that is associated with nerve damage most often in the feet and legs but which can also occur in the hands and arms.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2005
February 2005
Note: This is the second part of a two-part series. The first part was published in our January 2005 issue
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2005
January 2005
It seemed that every time we gave something a try and it didn’t quite work out, Mom and Dad always had a cliché at the ready to cushion the blow.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
Exenatide (synthetic exendin-4) significantly reduced A1C in patients with type 2 diabetes who were failing maximum doses of a sulfonylurea, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Veterans Medical Center at the University of California San Diego. Exenatide was well tolerated and associated with weight loss.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
Note: This is the first part of a two-part series. The second part will appear in the February 2005 issue of Diabetes Health.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2005
September 2004
A recent study documented the incidents of metformin-associated lactic acidosis at a poison center in Mainz, Germany.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2004
June 2004
A South Carolina study indicates that simvastatin (Zocor), an oral “statin” lipid-lowering drug is a potentially beneficial treatment for the inflammatory reaction associated with atherosclerosis.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2004
May 2004
On the same day that the U.S. government was lamenting the news that obesity has caught up with smoking as a leading killer of Americans, a study demonstrated that a pill may help people quit smoking and lose weight at the same time.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2004
April 2004
“Out-of-pocket medication costs pose a significant burden to many adults with diabetes and contribute to decreased treatment adherence.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
Several years ago, the dot-com phenomenon was making millionaires out of anybody with an idea for selling a product or service online.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
March 2004
Researchers have long understood that thiazolidinediones (TZDs) improve the action of insulin while increasing total fat mass as well. After studying 39 upper-body obese, insulin-resistant, but non-diabetic men and postmenopausal women, researchers concluded that patients on pioglitazone (Actos) improved their insulin resistance level regardless of the rise in intra-abdominal fat that accompanied the therapy.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
Type 2s who take thiazolidinediones (TZDs) such as Avandia and Actos face an increased risk of heart failure, and researchers suggest that physicians should consider alternative therapies.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
Who would have guessed that taking two diabetes drugs combined in one tablet would offer greater glucose-lowering benefits than taking the same two drugs in separate but still co-administered tablets?
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
February 2004
The cholesterol-lowering drug Pravachol (pravastatin), when administered at 40 milligrams per day over six years, helps prevent cardiovascular events including stroke in people with diabetes or with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and established coronary disease.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2004
January 2004
If you can’t find the name of your medication in our Type 2 Drug charts, there’s a good chance your medication is a combination product — in other words, two drugs combined in one tablet or capsule.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2004
While most practitioners tend to start out slow and build up dosages when prescribing oral medications for people with type 2 diabetes, Allen B. King, MD, FACE, CDE, prefers to use what he calls the “Blast and Taper Fast” method.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2004
May 2003
Roche, best known for its Accu-Chek family of blood-glucose monitors, made an offer in February 2003 to buy Disetronic's insulin pump division. A decision on the purchase should be finalized in May or June if Disetronic's shareholders accept Roche's tender offer of two nonvoting Roche equity securities and a price of 670 Swiss francs (about $490 U.S. dollars) per share.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2003
February 2003
Death rates are lower among people new to oral anti-diabetes medications if they take either metformin alone or metformin in combination with a sulfonylurea, as opposed to taking a sulfonylurea alone.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
January 2003
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for Glucovance (glyburide and metformin tablets), allowing the type 2 diabetes medication to be taken in combination with thiazolidinediones (TZDs) when adequate control is not achieved with diet and exercise.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on October 11, 2002, that it had approved Avandamet for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
In October 2002, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an oral type 2 medication that combines glipizide and metformin.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
Irbesartan (Avapro), an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), reduces 24-hour systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as albumin excretion rate (AER) in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2003
December 2002
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Diovan (valsartan), a medication for high blood pressure, to treat heart failure in people who cannot tolerate ACE (angiotensin-converting-enzyme) inhibitors.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
Your doctor diagnoses you with type 2 diabetes and advises you to lose weight—and then gives you a prescription for a medication that is known to cause excessive weight gain.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
When combined with NPH insulin taken at bedtime, Glucophage (metformin) provides slightly better glucose control with less weight gain and improved satisfaction with diabetes treatment than Prandin (repaglinide) plus NPH, say researchers in the United Kingdom.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
May 2002
Many patients who are treated with metformin (Glucophage) during hospital stays have medical conditions or undergo procedures that, when combined with metformin, put them at risk for developing lactic acidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by a build-up of lactic acid that can lead to organ damage.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2002
March 2002
In late January, the floodgates opened as IVAX Corporation, Alpharma, Inc., Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Andrx Corporation, and TevaPharmaceutical Industries announced that they were among the 11 companies who had received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell their generic versions of metformin, a popular oral medication used by people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
Metformin is safe and effective for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in children, according to new research.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
October 2001
It's that time of year again—the cold and flu season—when millions of people run to their medicine cabinets for relief.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2001
July 2001
The type 2 diabetes epidemic has reached an estimated 125 million people worldwide. This number is expected to increase to 220 million by the year 2010. The main reasons for this steep increase include reduced physical exercise, dietary changes and a higher incidence of obesity.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
May 2001
Rosiglitazone (Avandia) is more effective if taken twice per day instead of once per day, according to research conducted at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2001
January 2001
SmithKline Beecham announced in a November 8, 2000 press release that its type 2 drug Avandia (rosiglitazone) will be the only diabetes drug studied in a first-of-its kind, multi-national, 4,000-person study to determine the impact of intensive drug therapy on preventing type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2001
September 2000
DepoMed of Menlo Park, California, reported a second set of positive phase I data for its oral anti-diabetic drug Metformin GR. Data from a five-day trial enrolling 14 healthy volunteers suggest that 1000 mg of Metformin GR once per day is as well-tolerated as two doses per day of 500 mg Glucophage.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2000
May 2000
On the morning of March 22, people in the diabetes community awoke to the news that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had decided to withdraw Rezulin from the market on March 21. The FDA and endocrinologists advised Rezulin users to switch to Avandia or ACTOS. People who believe they may have been harmed by using Rezulin called their attorneys to pursue litigation against Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert, which manufactures the drug.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
On April 3, SmithKline Beecham announced that the FDA has approved Avandia for use as a treatment in combination with sulfonylureas. Previously, Avandia had been approved for treating type 2 diabetes as both monotherapy and in combination with Glucophage.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
SmithKline Beecham, maker of the glitazone Avandia, is working with doctors to help the transition of patients taking Rezulin to safer alternatives. SmithKline Beecham will be offering special services for type 2 diabetes patients to get more information about glitazones.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2000
March 2000
According to the January 18 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, two men - a 69-year-old and 61-year-old - who were taking Avandia were admitted to hospitals where doctors observed liver damage. Avandia, manufactured by SmithKline Beecham, is a thiazolidinedione, which is a class of type 2 medication that treats insulin resistance in people with type 2 diabetes. Avandia has been available since July 1999. According to SmithKline Beecham, it is being taken by 350,000 people with diabetes in the United States.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2000
February 2000
Merck & Co., Inc., recently announced that people with high cholesterol, heart disease and diabetes cut their risk of a heart attack by as much as 42 percent when taking Zocor, their cholesterol-lowering drug.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2000
January 2000
Researchers at the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center say the fat-blocking drug Xenical may help prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 7, 2000
SmithKline Beecham recently announced plans to initiate a major study to determine if early treatment with Avandia, Glucophage or a sulfonylurea improves and maintains blood sugar control in patients with type 2 diabetes, delays and/or prevents complications such as kidney disease and prevents decline in pancreatic beta-cell function.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2000
September 1999
Two new drugs have received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In clinical trials, Avandia (rosiglitazone maleate) and ACTOS (pioglitazone hydrochloride) lowered blood sugars an average of 76 mg/dl and 95 mg/dl respectively, when compared to a placebo.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1999
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has identified five new cases of liver failure linked to Rezulin.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 1999
July 1999
In clinical trials, patients taking ACTOS demonstrated no elevation of their liver enzymes when compared to patients taking a placebo.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1999
May 1999
A type 2 medication can reap huge sales, and the world's pharmaceutical businesses compete fiercely for a part of the type 2 market of 14 million people. The push for these sales has brought out many new drugs during recent years. Yet, the recent Rezulin controversy serves as a reminder that knowing all you can about your medication can improve your health.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1999
April 1999
How did one type 2 go from 20 units of insulin per day to none, and no blood sugar level above 185? He took Cogent DB, an Indian type 2 medication made from several herbs, which the Mayo Clinic is reported to be interested in testing.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1999
February 1999
January 1997 - Rezulin is given FDA clearance.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
Rezulin, a type 2 diabetes drug manufactured by Warner-Lambert, has been receiving its fair share of black eyes recently. Many in the diabetes community, however, are standing by Rezulin as an effective agent in treating type 2 diabetes. Others are making plans to treat their type 2 diabetes through other means.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1999
January 1999
The Food and Drug Administration has given marketing clearance to Bayer Corporation's pharmaceutical division to use Precose in combination with insulin or metformin for treating people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1999
July 1998
Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals has introduced a new oral antidiabetic agent called Prandin (repaglinide). The medication is intended for people with type 2 diabetes, who are unable to satisfactorily control their hyperglycemia through diet and exercise. It can also be used in combination with metformin, which works with Prandin to control blood sugars.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1998
February 1998
Susan has type 2 diabetes and is under the care of diabetes specialist Nancy Bohannon, MD. Like many other type 2s she is also hypertensive, has high cholesterol and suffered a heart attack. She has arthritis, is postmenopausal and is trying to quit smoking as well. To cover all these conditions she is on a list of pharmaceuticals that might have made even Elvis Presley take a step back.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
Prandin (repaglinide), a new type 2 oral medication manufactured by Novo Nordisk, has been approved by the FDA.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1998
October 1997
Rezulin, Warner-Lambert's type 2 diabetes drug, has recently been approved by the FDA for use in conjunction with sulfonylureas.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1997
July 1997
Cardiovascular disease kills approximately 3,000 Americans each day. While this figure is alarming, people with diabetes have even more reason to be concerned as they are two to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease. But take heart; there is good news.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1997
May 1997
February 1997
There is a new medication for people with type 2 diabetes on insulin that could help reduce, and in a few cases possibly eliminate, the need for insulin. The drug appears to resensitize the body to insulin and makes it easier for glucose to be absorbed from the bloodstream.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1997
May 1996
A recent study has concluded that acarbose and metformin can be used as effective therapies in people with type 2 diabetes who are poorly controlled with a sulfonylurea agent alone. Better glycemic control was achieved by patients in the study who also took acarbose or metformin, as opposed to just a sulfonylurea.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1996
March 1996
For the majority of Americans who suffer from type 2 diabetes, a new sulfonylurea drug, Amaryl (glimepiride tablets) may be an exciting option. Recently approved by the FDA, is the only drug of its kind indicated for use either on its own or with insulin, although the combined use may increase the potential for hypoglycemia. Amaryl binds to a different insulin receptor site than other sulfonylureas to provide sustained glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1996
Currently there are an estimated 16 million people with diabetes in the United States. Perhaps ten percent are insulin-dependent-the rest have type 2 diabetes, which they control with diet, exercise, oral medications, and insulin.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1996
November 1995
Precose, a new oral drug from Bayer, was recently granted market clearance by the FDA for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
Syndrome X is a group of problems associated with type 2 diabetes. It includes obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperlipi-demia (abnormal cholesterol metabolism), macro-angiopathy, (large blood vessel disease/hardening of the arteries), and insulin resistance.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
July 1995
The FDA recently approved a new drug that offers excellent benefits for people with type 2 diabetes. Metformin, marketed under the name Glucophage by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is an oral medication for people with non-insulin dependent diabetes. Although metformin has been in use in other countries for over two decades, its approval in the United States has taken 38 years. An earlier form of the drug was removed from the market because it caused serious complications. Metformin has been observed in other countries and can be used with confidence by most people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1995
DIABETES HEALTH: What is metformin?
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1995
Several prominent endocrinologists gathered in San Diego this past January to develop guidelines for prescribing metformin. Speaking at the American Diabetes Association Post-Graduate course were: Alan J. Garber, MD, PhD, of Houston's Baylor College of Medicine; Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, Chief of the Diabetes Division of the University of Texas Health Center in San Antonio; and Jay S. Skyler, MD of Miami.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1995
March 1995
Though it may be a promising alternative for many people with type 2 diabetes, the drug metformin may cause severe side effects, even death, in some patients.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 1995
January 1994
Q: I am a brittle diabetic and live in fear every day as my blood sugar goes from high to very low within a few hours, and I never know it's low until it is too late. I understand there's a new oral drug for this, and I hope you can share some information with me. Also, I'd like to know what's new in terms of a cure-I hear rumors, but never see the new techniques or good news in doctor's offices. Please share any news of new treatment.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1994
February 1993
In a study from the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, the lipid-regulating drug, gem-fibrozil (Lopid), was found to significantly improve triglyceride (blood fat) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels in a group of type 2 diabetes patients. Lipid disorders are a major cause of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), a condition which accounts for the majority of diabetes-related deaths. The ability to control stable lipid levels would greatly reduce the risk of developing heart disease.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 1993
November 1992
The Upjohn Company has recently released a new glyburide tablet that is designed to improve absorption and dosing flexibility for people with Type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1992
Dr. Alan Marcus is a diabetes specialist who practices in Laguna Hills, California. He is also a medical advisor to MiniMed Technologies and a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk Insulin. Dr. Marcus also serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine for the USC School of Medicine.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1992