Newest Treatment For Type 2 Diabetes Unleashed

Filed in archive Research on December 30, 2006

Quick diabetes news bite:

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced Otsuka has been granted exclusive rights in Japan to develop and commercialize the investigational compound saxagliptin, being studied for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Saxagliptin, discovered by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor currently in Phase III development in the United States and Europe.

Saxagliptin is a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, a new class of diabetes medicines that work by increasing and prolonging the action of natural hormones in the body called incretins. Incretins decrease blood sugar by increasing consumption of sugar by the body, mainly through increasing insulin production in the pancreas, and by reducing production of sugar by the liver. By enhancing the effect of active incretin hormones in the body, DPP-4 inhibitors improve timely insulin release and ultimately decrease high blood sugar levels in patients with Type 2 diabetes.

Could another miracle medicine be on the way?