MedWire News: Results from a systematic review and meta-analysis show that pramlintide, a synthetic amylin analog, is modestly effective for reducing glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and weight in Type 2 diabetic or obese patients.
Pramlintide is a relatively new antidiabetes drug, approved in 2005 by the US Food and Drug Administration. It has shown some promise for reducing HbA1c and weight, as reported by MedWire News, but there is doubt about whether its benefits outweigh its disadvantages (nausea, need for multiple injections, and cost).
Devada Singh-Franco (Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA) and colleagues carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of eight randomized clinical trials of pramlintide, including four in patients with Type 2 diabetes (n=930) and four in obese nondiabetic patients (n=686).
The studies lasted from 16-52 weeks and involved treatment with intravenous pramlintide 120-360 mcg two to three times per day versus placebo.
The team found that HbA1c was reduced by a mean 0.33% in the Type 2 diabetes patients treated with pramlintide versus placebo. Weight was reduced by an average of 2.27-2.57 kg in both the obese and Type 2 diabetes groups with pramlintide versus placebo.
Hypoglycemia occurred in more placebo than pramlintide group patients, but nausea was 1.8 times more common in pramlintide-treated patients than those given placebo.
"Larger studies (efficacy, tolerability and cost-effectiveness analyses) with newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients (not on insulins) comparing monotherapy and combination therapy with pramlintide with the other agents are needed," conclude the authors in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a trading division of Springer Healthcare Limited. © Springer Healthcare Ltd; 2010
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