Onglyza, a new drug used to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes, has won approval from the Food and Drug Administration, according to a recent Reuters article.
The once-daily treatment is made by Bristol-Myers Squibb and distributed in coordination with AstraZeneca. The company hopes it can compete with Merck’s Januvia diabetes drug, which has $1.4 billion in worldwide sales last year.
Main side effects include headache, respiratory tract and urinary tract infections, rashes, hives and other allergy-like reactions. While the drug does not appear to carry increase risk for heart problems in low-risk patients, the FDA has required the company to study the safety for higher-risk patients
The drug belongs to a class of drugs called DPP-4 inhibitors. It stimulates the pancrease to release more insulin, according to an article on WebMD Health News. Januvia was the first drug in this class to be approved. It was approved in 2006. Recently, another similar drug, Takeda’s algoliptin, was rejected by the FDA because of a lack of data on its impact on the heart.
