For many years critics have bemoaned the absence of outcome studies for the many diabetes drugs used to lower blood glucose levels. Now, finally, two large trials with different drugs have been presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting in Amsterdam and published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine. The good news is that the drugs appear safe. Both trials turned up no evidence for the adverse cardiovascular events that some had feared. The bad news is that neither drug appeared to improve cardiovascular outcomes, though cardiovascular disease is the cause of death in most people with diabetes.
SAVOR-TIMI 53
A total of 16,492 people with type 2 diabetes at high risk for a cardiovascular event were studied in SAVOR-TIMI 53. Participants were randomized to the DPP-4 inhibitor saxagliptin (Onglyza, Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca) or placebo.
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Examination of Cardiovascular Outcomes with Alogliptin versus Standard of Care (EXAMINE)
In the EXAMINE trial, 5,380 people with a recent acute coronary syndrome (ACS) were randomized to alogliptin (Nesina, Takeda Pharmaceuticals) or placebo.
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These trials represent the first round of FDA-mandated cardiovascular outcomes trials for diabetes drugs, a major result of the rosiglitazone controversy. In an accompanying perspective in NEJM, William Hiatt, Sanjay Kaul, and Robert Smith, all members of the FDA advisory committees that debated the fate of rosiglitazone, discuss the complicated recent history of diabetes drugs at the FDA.
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