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A drug used to help control blood sugar levels in people with diabetes helps prevent or slow down kidney disease, which causes millions of deaths each year and forces hundreds of thousands of people to stay alive by dialysis.
Doctors say it's hard to overstate the importance of this study and what it means to tackle this problem, which is gaining momentum as a result of the obesity epidemic.
The study tested the drug Invokana from Janssen Pharmaceuticals. The findings were discussed Sunday at a medical meeting in Australia and published by the New England Journal of Medicine.
About 30 million Americans and more than 420 million people worldwide have diabetes, and most cases are type 2, of the type related to obesity. This happens when the body can not produce enough or use insulin properly, which turns food into energy.
This can damage the kidneys over time, causing illness and possibly failure. In the United States, nearly half a million people require dialysis and thousands of kidney transplants each year.
Some blood pressure medications reduce this risk, but they are only partially effective. The new study tested Invokana, a daily pill sold now to help control blood sugar levels, to see if it could also help prevent kidney disease in combination with standard treatments.
For the study, about 13,000 people with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease worldwide were expected to receive Invokana or dummy pills. Independent observers stopped the study early, after 4,400 people were treated for about two and a half years on average, when it was clear that the drug was helping.
Those who took this medication were 30% less likely to get one of these problems – kidney failure, need for dialysis, need for a kidney transplant, death from heart or kidney, or other signs of kidney failure. Kidney failure.
The researchers estimate that for every 1,000 people taking the drug for 2.5 years, there would be 47 fewer cases than one of these problems.
The rates of serious side effects were similar in the groups on medication and placebo, including amputations of the leg, foot or toes, a concern raised by an earlier Invokana study. One of the side effects, when the body could not produce enough insulin, was more common in Invokana patients but was generally rare.
Janssen, part of Johnson & Johnson, sponsored the study and many authors work or consult for the company. In the United States, the drug costs about $ 500 a month. Patients' fees may be different, depending on the insurance.
In an accompanying article, doctors Julie Ingelfinger and Clifford Rosen, editors of the medical journal, wrote about the importance of this vast and well-done study.
In recent years, several studies have shown that Invokana and some similar medications could reduce heart risks. The new findings, showing that Invokana can also stall or prevent kidney failure, broaden the potential benefits of the drug.
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