AZ-BMS diabetes drug impresses in phase III trials
pharmafile | October 1, 2010 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, BMS, dapagliflozin, diabetes
AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb’s potential first-in-class diabetes drug dapagliflozin has shown strong results in a late stage trial.
It was being tested as a second-line treatment in conjunction with pre-existing anti-diabetic treatments and compared with Pfizer’s oral anti-diabetic Glucotrol.
Data published at the 46th EASD diabetes conference in Stockholm suggest dapagliflozin may provide significant HbA1c (glycosylated haemoglobin level) reductions without the increased risk of hypoglycaemia or weight gain associated with some oral anti-diabetics.
Patients taking dapagliflozin plus metformin achieved an identical adjusted mean reduction in HbA1c compared with those taking Glucotrol plus metformin.
However, the number of patients experiencing hypoglycaemic events was significantly lower for patients treated with dapagliflozin plus metformin compared with those treated with Glucotrol plus metformin (3.5% vs. 40.8%).
Those receiving dapagliflozin plus metformin also benefited from significant weight loss, a strong selling point for the drug if it reaches the market.
Frédéric Duchesne, general manager of Bristol-Myers Squibb UK, on behalf of the BMS and AZ Alliance in Diabetes, said: “These promising new data underline the potential of dapagliflozin and bring us one step closer to improving outcomes for people living with type II diabetes.”
Dapagliflozin has a novel mode of action that uses a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor. SGLT2 inhibitors, which act independently of insulin mechanisms, facilitate the excretion of glucose and associated calories in the urine, thereby lowering blood glucose levels.
The renal SGLT system plays a major role in overall glucose balance in the body. Normally, the kidney filters around 180g of glucose each day, and virtually all is reabsorbed back into circulation. Glucose re-absorption occurs in the proximal tubule of the kidney via the SGLT system.
Current treatments that act as third-line treatment after anti-diabetic treatments have failed use a glucagon-like peptide 1 mode of action that stimulates a natural endocrine response and include Roche’s taspoglutide, Sanofi-Aventis’s lixisenatide and GSK’s Syncria.
BMS and AZ entered into an alliance in January 2007 to enable the companies to research, develop and commercialise the anti-diabetics Onglyza (saxagliptin), which was launched in Europe last year, and dapagliflozin.
Ben Adams
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