AHRQ releases diabetes review

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released a draft comparative effectiveness review of oral diabetes medications. The report found that most oral medications -- metformin, thiazolidinediones, sulfonylureas and repaglinide -- reduce HbA1c by a similar degree from baseline after three or more months of treatment. The review also said that two-drug combination therapies with metformin were generally more effective at reducing HbA1c vs. metformin alone.

The agency noted that there are little long-term comparative data on the cardiovascular safety of diabetes treatments. The draft report also did not find data to support safety differences between two FDA-approved thiazolidinediones -- Avandia rosiglitazone from GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK) and Actos pioglitazone from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4502). ...