GlaxoSmithKline shows Avandia benefits in ‘largest ever’ trial

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced the results of the “largest ever” diabetes prevention trial, using its anti-diabetic drug, Avandia (rosiglitazone).

Some 5,269 patients with pre-diabetes – people with high blood sugar levels, but not high enough to fully diagnose type two diabetes – were enrolled into the study, entitled Dream.

The subjects were split into two groups, with some patients receiving Avandia and others receiving ramipril, the ACE inhibitor designed to combat high blood pressure.

While the study was not designed to compare the two drugs, ramipril patients did not demonstrate a reduced risk of diabetes or death. However, patients taking Avandia showed a 62 per cent reduction in the risk of developing type two diabetes, compared to the placebo. The study’s authors claim this was in addition to standard lifestyle therapies like healthy eating and exercise.

Furthermore, 10.6 per cent of patients receiving Avandia progressed to full type two diabetes, in comparison with 25 per cent of patients receiving the placebo.

Dr Bernard Zinman, member of the Dream Steering Committee, stated: “By demonstrating that rosiglitazone significantly reduced the risk of developing type two diabetes, these data provide important evidence that it may be possible to alter the course of rising blood sugar levels and its consequences.”

He added that the results were “particularly significant” since the world is in the midst of an epidemic of type two diabetes, which could have “global implications”.

In 2002, an economic analysis of the costs of diabetes to the UK economy published in Diabetic Medicine, a journal, concluded that type two diabetes will present the NHS with a “serious clinical and financial challenge” during the next 30 years.