Forget heart disease, AtheroGenics says its lead therapy--AGI-1067--can work as an oral diabetes drug, and researchers are offering the data to back it up. Last spring AstraZeneca pulled out of its collaboration with AtheroGenics on the drug after it failed a study that assessed its effectiveness in treating heart disease. New data shows that the drug helps provide glycemic control after 12 months. And it reduced the onset of diabetes in patients with a precursor condition in 59 percent of cases.
Marc Pfeffer, a Harvard Medical School professor and an investigator, says that the drug demonstrated a modest drop in glycated haemoglobin A1c that would indicate a possible role for the drug as an add-on therapy for diabetes patients. But another investigator from the Karolinska Institute noted that the reduction was too small to be of great help. The real benefit came among patients with impaired fasting glucose, a precursor to diabetes. And that's where the investigators felt that the drug showed the most potential.
- here's the release on the trial data
- check out the AP report for more