Alogliptin is an effective add-on to glimepiride therapy for improving glycemic control in Japanese patients with Type 2 diabetes, show study findings.
Furthermore, the benefits of the combination therapy were maintained over a 1-year period, report Yutaka Seino (Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan) and colleagues.
Daily administration of alogliptin 12.5 mg or 25.0 mg in addition to continued treatment with glimepiride (1-6 mg/day) significantly reduced glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels in patients with diabetes uncontrolled on a sulfonylurea plus diet and exercise.
After 12 weeks, the mean HbA1c increased by 0.35% in the glimepiride monotherapy group whereas it decreased by 0.59% in the alogliptin 12.5 mg group and by 0.65% in the alogliptin 25.0 mg group.
In addition, significantly more patients in the 12.5 mg and 25.0 mg alogliptin groups than in the glimepiride group achieved an HbA1c of less than 6.9%, the target HbA1c set by the Japanese Diabetes Society. Ten (9.6%) of 105 patients on 12.5 mg alogliptin achieved this target, as did eight (7.4%) of 104 individuals on 25.0 mg alogliptin, while none of the patients on glimepiride monotherapy achieved it.
Furthermore, the incidence of reported adverse events was similar between the groups, at 48.5%, 46.7%, and 56.7% with glimepiride monotherapy, alogliptin 12.5 mg, and aloglitpoin 25.0 mg, respectively. The majority of these events were mild in severity, says the team.
As reported in the Journal of Diabetes Investigation, the researchers conducted a 40-week extension study of the two alogliptin groups.
After a total of 52 weeks of treatment, individuals taking 12.5 mg and 25.0 mg alogliptin had a mean reduction from baseline in HbA1c of 0.42% and 0.58%, respectively. And the proportion of individuals from the corresponding groups who achieved the target HbA1c was 6.0% and 4.6%, respectively.
"Alogliptin will be a useful treatment option for patients with Type 2 diabetes currently managed with glimepiride and who become less responsive to the antihyperglycemic effects of the sulfonylurea," concludes the team.
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