Researchers investigating the Takeda drug Actos have revealed that patients who have type 2 diabetes and have suffered a first stroke have a 47 per cent less risk of having a second one if they take the drug.
The findings were presented at the World Congress of Cardiology, and ranks Actos as one of the growing numbers of drugs for diabetes that have external benefits beyond lowering blood sugar levels.
Dr. Robert Wilcox from the University Hospital of Nottingham in England presented the results. Adding Actos to standard cover lowered the possibility of a secondary stroke by almost half amongst the study group. However, Actos didn’t influence strokes amongst those patients who had never suffered a stroke.
Actos is co-promoted by Eli Lilly and Co, and belongs to a class of medicines that are known as insulin sensitisers. These drugs work by increasing the body’s own sensitivity to insulin, and helps patients to use their own natural insulin.
An expert from Takeda was excited by the Actos side effect, saying: “This is amazing. When you classically think of stroke, you think of blood pressure and maybe cholesterol . To think that a diabetes medicine does this is truly remarkable.”
The future of diabetes treatment and the healthcare burden could rest on drugs of this type.
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