Advantage for Exenatide
Monday, June 8th, 2009The advantage for exenatide was considered statistically significant in both cases, said Bergenstal, who is the ADA’s president elect for medicine and science.
A1C is a commonly used measure of a person’s average blood glucose over time. ADA guidelines call for A1C levels of 7 percent or less.
Exenatide helped more patients in the trial reach the ADA goal, with 66 percent who received the once-weekly injection getting blood glucose level to target versus 42 percent for Januvia and 56 percent for Actos, also a statistically significant difference. Actos and Januvia are pills taken daily.
“When you look across the U.S. population and say what percent of Type 2 patients are to target, it’s pretty low; maybe it’s as high as 50 percent,” Bergenstal said. “So if you can get to 66 percent, you’ve done well above the average. All three had a nice reduction, but more with exenatide.”
Patients who received exenatide once weekly lost an average of 2.3 kilograms (5 pounds), while Januvia patients lost 0.8 kg (1.8 pounds). Those who took Actos on average gained 2.8 kg (6.2 pounds).
Weight loss is an important advantage in type 2 diabetes as most patients tend to be overweight since obesity is one of the leading causes of the burgeoning epidemic. Some older diabetes drugs cause weight gain, as Actos did in this study.
There was also a greater drop in systolic blood pressure seen with exenatide, although all three medicines took blood pressure in the right direction, Bergenstal said.

