It seems that the widely-prescribed diabetes drug metformin works better when used in combination with another diabetes drug - earliier with sitagliptin, now with vildagliptin.

According to Dr Sylvia Dejager, a principal medical and scientific officer at Novartis, USA who presented at the 43rd annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands:

"Four times as many patients achieved a target HbA1c level of 7 per cent when adding vildagliptin 100mg daily to high-dose metformin than patients who added a placebo.

Over half (54%) of patients with a baseline HbA1c of below 8 per cent reached target compared to only13 per cent adding placebo.

The combination works synergistically with metformin increasing GLP-1 and vildagliptin preventing its degradation by the DPP 4 enzyme. GLP-1 is an incretin hormone secreted in the gut that boosts insulin secretion."

Vildagliptin is marketed as Galvus, a product of Novartis Pharma yet to be approved by the FDA.

Find more details from Medical News Today.

[Photo Credit: Forbes]