Novel Drug Promising as Metformin Add-on

By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: June 24, 2010 Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

ORLANDO -- Adding dapagliflozin, an investigational selective sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor, to metformin may improve glycemic control in diabetic patients who aren't responsive to metformin monotherapy. In a phase III trial, mean glycosylated hemoglobin decreased significantly for patients on three different doses of the drug compared with those on placebo, Clifford J. Bailey, MD, of Aston University in Birmingham, U.K., and colleagues reported online in a special American Diabetes Association issue of The Lancet.