DPP-4 Inhibitor JANUVIA® Approved In EU for Type 2 Diabetes

Filed in archive Treatment on March 26, 2007

For starters let me pick on the most common type of diabetes: type 2 diabetes -where either the body does not produce enough insulin or the body's cells are resistant to insulin - both cases leading to high blood sugar.

However, this shouldn't cause us to panic, because the condition can be managed with a balanced-diet, lifestyle changes and of course medication to help a type 2 diabetic with that insulin problem (without insulin, blood sugar cannot be broken down).

Now, a new class of drugs known as dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors or DPP-4 inhibitors is capable of enhancing the body's own ability to lower blood sugar (glycaemic control) when its levels are elevated in the body.

One example of such kind of drug is Merck's JANUVIA® (sitagliptin1) - the first and only prescription DPP-4 inhibitor approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

JANUVIA is an oral, once daily potent and highly selective DPP-4 inhibitor. DPP-4 inhibitors work by enhancing a natural body process that lowers blood sugar, the incretin system.

When blood sugar is elevated, incretins work in two ways to help the body regulate high blood sugar levels: they trigger the pancreas to increase the release of insulin and signal the liver to reduce its production of glucose.

DPP-4 inhibitors enhance the body's own ability to control blood sugar levels by increasing the active levels of these incretin hormones in the body, helping to decrease blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Recently, JANUVIA® has been granted a license by the European Commission which allows for the product in the European Union (EU) as treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus to improve glycaemic control in combination with metformin ( the most popular/most prescibed type 2 diabetes drug in the U.S.) when diet and exercise plus metformin do not provide adequate glycaemic control.

JANUVIA® is to be taken 100 mg once daily with or without food.

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