Eli Lilly: Blood glucose levels reduced by Byetta used with TZD

Eli Lilly’s new diabetes drug, Byetta can reduce the blood glucose levels of type two diabetes patients when used with a thiazolidinedione (TZD), suggests a new study.

Findings presented to the 66th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetics Association (ADA), showed that providing Byetta to patients already using a TZD will dramatically reduce their blood glucose levels in three different measures – fasting blood glucose, haemoglobin A1C and postprandial blood glucose.

Participants using Byetta in the study, reached an A1C value of seven per cent or less, which is the recommended target of good glucose control by the ADA. A1C figures further improved by 0.9 per cent for Byetta when compared to members of the control group in the study.

Bernard Zinman, lead author of the study, commented: “In the context of treating the underlying defects in people with type 2 diabetes – beta-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance – using combination therapies is a sensible approach for patients.”

He added: “”These data indicate that the addition of Byetta to TZDs can be a clinically meaningful treatment for patients.”

Byetta exhibits many of the same effects of the human incretin hormone glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) and is hence known as the first incretin mimetic. It regulates sugar by being secreted in response to food intake and has consequent effects on the liver, pancreas, intestine and brain.

Around 194 million adults suffer from diabetes worldwide, with 90 to 95 per cent having type two diabetes. It is an obesity-related diabetes caused by the inability of pancreatic beta cells to respond appropriately to increased demands for insulin.

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