A new drug for people with a certain type of diabetes will treat the condition without some of the common side-effects of existing drugs, a pharmaceutical firm said today.
Merck Sharp & Dohme Ireland today launched its drug Januvia, which it said was the first new class of medicine for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in more than five years.
In this type of diabetes, the pancreas still produces some insulin, but not enough to meet the body’s needs, or the insulin that is produced is not working very well.
The hormone insulin is vital to help the liver process glucose and fats. Diabetes, if untreated or improperly treated, can cause serious problems such as kidney disease and blindness and may result in the sufferer having limbs amputated.
It tends to occur in older people. According to Merck, about 85 to 90 per cent of all those with diabetes have type 2. The remainder have type I, where the pancreas completely stops producing insulin.
The once-a-day prescription drug, known as a DPP-4 inhibitor, enhances the body’s own natural mechanisms to significantly lower blood sugar, the company claims.
“It also has a far lower incidence of the side effects commonly associated with some of the other existing therapies.”
“DPP-4 inhibitors are an important breakthrough and offer an innovative approach to treating type 2 diabetes, a disease that is rapidly increasing in prevalence in Ireland and across the world,” said Dr Graham Roberts, consultant endocrinologist, Waterford Regional Hospital.
“Almost two out of three adults being treated for type 2 diabetes are not reaching their target blood sugar levels, which can then lead to serious complications, such as heart disease, kidney problems and diabetes-related blindness.3 These complications can be completely avoided if the glucose is treated to correct target levels.”
Dr Roberts said Januvia is “a welcome new treatment option which effectively lowers blood sugar when it is too high, without unwanted side effects such as low blood sugar and weight gain”.
A survey by Ipsos MORI of 100 people with type 2 diabetes, published with Merck’s announcement today, said nearly one in four people (24 per cent) surveyed felt their disease was not properly controlled.
One in six (16 per cent) said they found it difficult to live with their medication’s side effects, with one in three (31 per cent) feeling their medication had made them gain weight when they were trying to lose it.
Just over a fifth (22 per cent) said that diabetes was taking over their life.
“In Ireland 200,000 adults have diabetes - enough to fill Croke Park more than twice over,” said Anna Clarke, diabetes nurse specialist with the Diabetes Federation of Ireland.
“Many people can reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. For those who have developed it, they need to take a proactive role in managing their condition in order to prevent associated complications which can heavily impact on their quality of life.”
Using a simple portion control dinner plate can help people with type 2 diabetes lose weight and decrease reliance on medication, research shows.
Canadian researchers put people with type 2 diabetes on a calorie-controlled diet for six months.
They found 17% of those who used a calibrated diet plate lost more than 5% of their body weight, compared with just 4.5% who did not.
The study appears in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine.
In the majority of cases type 2 diabetes is linked to carrying excess weight - 80% of people are overweight at diagnosis, and doctors recognise that weight loss can greatly improve the condition.
However, many people with diabetes find it hard to stick to a weight loss regime.
The researchers tested the effect of using a calibrated dinner plate and breakfast bowl that helps people to eat healthy sized portions.
On average those who used the diet plates lost 1.75% of their body weight, compared with just 0.05% in the group who had to rely on will power alone.
As a result, they were also much more likely to be able to decrease their reliance on diabetes-controlling medication, including shots of insulin.
As good as drugs
Lead researcher Dr Sue Pederson said the results were comparable to those achieved by taking expensive weight loss drugs.
She said: “The weight loss results are all the more impressive considering that diabetics in general do not respond well to weight loss programmes.”
Dr Ian Campbell, medical director of the charity Weight Concern, said: “Losing weight is never easy and even harder for diabetics.
“To achieve these results over a six month period is excellent and with no more side effects than an occasional decrease in blood glucose, easily corrected by a reduction in medication, is very impressive indeed.”
Tracy Kelly, of the charity Diabetes UK, said eating a healthy balanced diet and taking regular physical activity were the best ways of controlling weight and effectively managing diabetes.
“Cutting down on portion sizes and eating balanced meals will help people control their weight, therefore some people may find this plate useful.
“However, controlling weight can be achieved effectively without spending extra money.
“A healthy balanced diet should be based on carbohydrates and be low in fat, sugar and salt with plenty of fruit and vegetables.”
Giving children with type 1 diabetes an infusion of blood saved from their own umbilical cords helped reduce the severity of their disease, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
They said the blood — which is rich in immune regulatory cells — may re-start the children’s immune systems, but the effect likely will not last and will need more study.
“They are getting back their own cells and nothing else. We knew it would be very safe and the fact that we are seeing any benefit is a big bonus,” said Dr. Michael Haller of the University of Florida College of Medicine, who presented the study at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Chicago.
Haller said the study is one of the first to look at the use of cord blood to treat diabetes in children, which affects an estimated 176,500, or about 0.2 percent, of U.S. children.
“There’s a lot of promise but it’s cautious optimism at this point,” he said.
Type 1 diabetes, usually diagnosed in children and young adults, occurs when the immune system goes haywire and starts attacking itself, destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas needed to control blood sugar.
Haller said so far his team had studied 11 diabetic children aged 2 to 10 who were treated with their own cord blood. They were followed for between three months and 31 months.
Children given the cord blood had lower blood glucose levels and needed much less daily insulin therapy to control their diabetes than children with the disease who did not get the therapy.
Haller said the cord blood may be helping the kids by providing a type of immune cell that can keep the immune system from attacking the pancreas, holding the diabetes in check.
While cord blood also contains stem cells, which can differentiate into insulin-producing cells, Dr. Desmond Schatz, also of the University of Florida, said the researchers suspect the effect is related to the regulatory T cells in the cord blood.
The children who got cord blood had measurable increases in this type of immune-regulating cell.
While the findings are promising, the doctors do not believe they have found a lasting cure.
“Whatever caused that immune process to begin with didn’t go away, so the diabetes should come back,” Schatz said at a news briefing.
“We expect this effect will be transient but we will be able to use it in other combinations of therapies,” he said.
All the children in the study had the benefit of having their own umbilical cord blood stored, which some parents do in case it is needed for later therapy. It can be used to treat leukemia and some genetic diseases.
Haller said storage costs between $1,200 to $2,500 up front and then between $75 and $250 per year and that he is not ready to recommend cord blood storage based on his study. “It’s clearly worth expanded study to figure out what is going on and why,? he said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics said this year that parents should only bank cord blood if they have an older child with a condition that could benefit.