A clinical trial of more than 8,800 people in 20 countries found that common complications of type 2 diabetes in older patients, such as cardiovascular events and retinopathy, were reduced by taking dulaglutide.
Over six years of follow-up, there was a 15 percent reduction in cardiovascular events, such as macrovascular disease, among those who had been taking dulaglutide compared with those taking a placebo, the effect was widespread and was seen in both men and women.
In addition, the drug reduced the rate of retinopathy by 15 percent. "Diabetics are twice as likely as others to develop cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke, and up to 35 percent of diabetics develop kidney disease," said Mikkaichi, the study's lead researcher and a professor of medicine at Duke University. It has been shown to reduce these events while keeping diabetics' blood sugar levels under control and moderately reducing weight and blood pressure in type 2 diabetics.
The FDA is a documented glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist that is approved to lower blood sugar once a week and works by helping the pancreas release adequate insulin when blood sugar levels are high, slowing gastric emptying after meals, and reducing appetite and weight.
Mikkaichi noted that the study participants were followed for an average of 5.2 years, much longer than in previous trials, and that more than 43 percent of the participants were women. About one-third of the participants had previous cardiovascular disease. In the trial, patients taking dulaglutide lost slightly more weight, had lower blood pressure and a modest increase in heart rate. But the subjects were more likely to have gastrointestinal side effects, including constipation or diarrhea.