Irish-made diabetes drug performs well in global trial

THOUSANDS of diabetes sufferers could be saved by an Irish-made medicine which has come through worldwide trials with flying colours.

The international study examined the effects of intensive blood glucose (sugar) reduction using the medication.

More than 200,000 Irish people have diabetes, with many more cases going undiagnosed, while 10% of the health budget is spent on diabetes care.

With type 2 diabetes one of the greatest threats to the health of the world’s population, backers of the new Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease treatment hope that the latest results will have “huge clinical implications”.

Intensive treatment can reduce the risk of kidney diseases by 20%, according to the study results presented yesterday at the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Advance trial is the largest of its kind ever conducted, with 442 Irish patients at five centres in this country among 11,140 taking part throughout 20 countries over five years.

This arm of the trial used the oral anti-diabetic which is produced by the French pharmaceutical company Servier at its plant in Arklow, Co Wicklow.

One of the Irish investigators involved in the trial, consultant endocrinologist Dr Richard Firth, said the results were “good news” for Irish diabetics.

Advance co-principal investigator, John Chalrmers, of the George Institute in Sydney, said: “The results show a substantial reduction of 14% in microvascular disease and that’s driven by a large one-fifth reduction in kidney disease.”

The main findings of the study show that intensive blood glucose lowering treatment reduced the overall risk of serious diabetes complications (by 10% and a reduction in kidney disease by 21%.