Doctors in India say it's a a relatively cheap drug with one tablet costing upto Rs 45. The drug has been around for three years and is often prescribed to Indian patients to control diabetes.
Diabetes patients run an additional risk of heart disease. A drug recently approved by US-FDA drug would help with both. Empagliflozin, a drug used to manage sugar levels has also been shown to reduce risk of heart diseases.
Doctors in India say it's a a relatively cheap drug with one tablet costing upto Rs 45. The drug has been around for three years and is often prescribed to Indian patients to control diabetes. It's approved status as a medicine for heart health is now an added benefit, say doctors.
"A diabetic patients' chance of acquiring heart problems is twice that of a regular ones. In a large global trial that involved over 15,000 patient, Empagliflozin was given to diabetic patients. Their weight, sugar levels, lipid profile (fat and cholesterol levels), and blood pressure were also monitored to assess their susceptibility to heart diseases," said Dr Dharmendra Panchal, an Ahmedabad-based diabetologist, who was one of the clinical trial investigators.
In the EMPA-REG Outcome trial, the drug was shown to reduce risk of death due to heart disease in patients who had diabetes by 38 per cent.
"Diabetics are two to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease. Empagliflozin will now enable physicians to prescribe a medication that can reduce risk of dying from cardiovascular disease to Type 2 diabetics ," said Professor Christopher P Cannon, MD, Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School.
India is estimated to be home to 6.3 crore diabetics. Dr Panchal said, "The drug shows results within a week. About 70 per cent diabetic patients are obese. We realised in these trials that the drug brings blood sugar and blood pressure under control and also helps patients' keep their weight in check."
Empagliflozin, however, is not for patients with Type-1 diabetes or people with diabetic ketoacidosis, warns pharmaceutical companies. Patients with Type 1 diabetes cannot produce insulin as their pancreas are affected since birth, however Type 2 diabetes is more of a lifestyle related disease where insulin production is suppressed with age.
If used irresponsibly the drug can have side-effects like dehydration or low BP. It can also lead to serious urinary tract infections or low blood glucose when used with insulin, or fungal infections or vagina and penis or lead to increase in cholesterol.
Empagliflozin belongs to a new class of drugs called SGL2 inhibitors, which make kidneys remove sugar through the urine route.
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