Novo Nordisk reports NovoMix ‘achieves blood glucose target’

Novo Nordisk has announced that its NovoMix 30 insulin improves blood sugar control in the long term in patients with type two diabetes that previously exhibited poor glycaemic control when treated only with metformin and pioglitazone.

The company presented the results of the Action study at the International Diabetes Federation Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. It reported that adding NovoMix to a treatment regime of metformin and pioglitazone resulted in more patients reaching their HbA1c treatment goals.

Phillip Raskin, professor at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Centre, said: “Patients are too often treated only with OADs [oral antidiabetics] long after insulin therapy should have been initiated, resulting in poor glycaemic control and an increase risk of serious, long-term complications.”

He added that the Action studied showed patients with an existing HbA1c above nine per cent could not reduce this level to seven per cent solely by treatment with metformin and pioglitazone. However, 60 per cent achieved this recommended reduction after adding NovoMix 30 to their treatment.

In September, Novo Nordisk announced at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference in Copenhagen that NovoMix 30 was a safe and effective alternative treatment to basal-bolus therapy for patients with type two diabetes.