Takeda diabetes drug ‘reduces stroke risk’

Takeda, the Japanese pharmaceutical company, has found that Actos, the oral antidiabetic medication, “significantly” reduces the risk of recurrent stroke in patients with high-risk type two diabetes.

The company revealed the details of the “landmark” PROactive study at the World Congress of Cardiology in Barcelona, which revealed that the incidence of stroke for type II diabetes Actos users was reduced by 47 per cent, while the combined risk of death, myocardial infarction or stroke was reduced by 28 per cent.

Scientists say the new data is important because the risk of stroke in diabetes patients is two to four times higher than the population average.

Robert Wilcox, professor in the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Queen’s Medical Centre, University Hospital, Nottingham, stated: “These results are very encouraging news for people with type two diabetes because they demonstrated that Actos reduced the incidence of strokes in patients who had already experienced a stroke from 10.2 percent down to 5.6 percent, translating to a risk reduction of almost 50 percent.”

Actos is an insulin sensitiser, which reduces the body’s resistance to insulin, helping it to use the insulin naturally produced by the body more effectively. The treatment is marketed in 70 countries in conjunction with Eli Lilly, the American pharmaceutical company.

During the company’s last reported quarter, overseas sales of Actos and Actoplus Met – a version combined with metformin – increased by 43.2 per cent, up to $611 million. It is one of the company’s biggest sellers.

© Adfero Ltd