Cardiovascular Business - November/December 2008 - (Page 30)

PersPeCtive: PHArMA › By Justine Cadet trials Force Physicians to Re-Examine Oral Anti-Diabetic Drug Protocols W ithin the past year, endocrinologists and federal regulators have become much more conscientious about the risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease with type 2 diabetes patients, due to their natural propensity for CV events, along with the potential adverse events associated with particular medications, such as Avandia. The results of the ACCORD and ADVANCE trials have caused the FDA to reassess its approval process for diabetes drugs and altered the method in which many specialists manage their type 2 diabetes patients with oral agents (NEJM 2008; 358:2545-2572). In the ACCORD trial, more than 10,000 randomized patients with a median glycated hemoglobin (A1c) level of 8.1 percent were assigned to receive intensive therapy (targeting a hemoglobin A1c level below 6 percent) or standard therapy (targeting a level from 7 to 7.9 percent). The intensive-therapy arm was discontinued after 41 CV-related deaths occurred. In an accompanying commentary in the NEJM, Robert G. Dluhy, MD, and Graham T. McMahon, MD, suggested that future studies should focus on targeting near-normal glycemic levels with strategies that carry a lower risk of hypoglycemia. In the ADVANCE trial, more than 11,000 patients were randomly assigned to undergo either standard glucose control or intensive glucose control—defined as the use of gliclazide-MR (Diamicron MR, Servier) plus other drugs as required to achieve a hemoglobin A1c value of 6.5 percent or less. The ADVANCE results did not reveal a similar pattern of high-risk of death. The authors noted that severe hypoglycemia, although uncommon, was more common in the intensive-control group. Noting some trial differences, Dluhy and McMahon wrote that thiazolidinediones (TZDs) “were widely prescribed during the ACCORD trial (92 percent in the intensive-therapy group vs. 58 percent in the standard-therapy group, with rosiglitazone [Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline] used almost exclusively), but were administered more sparingly in the ADVANCE trial (17 percent in the intensive-control group vs. 11 percent in the standard-control group).” Pioglitazone (Actos, Takeda Pharmaceuticals) is the other major TZD on the U.S. market. However, ADVANCE lead author Anushka Patel, MD, from the University of Sydney in Australia, says that no conclusions or recommendations about the use of TZDs can be made for either trial. “It is important to remember that in the two trials, patients were randomized to strategies of care involving multiple treatments, and not to head-to-head comparisons of individual drugs. It is not possible to reliably dissect out any particular beneficial or harmful effect for a component drug. Conclusions can only be drawn about the effects of the overall strategy,” he says. Recently, Sonal Singh, MD, et al recommended strong restrictions in the use of TZDs and questioned the rationale for leaving Avandia on the U.S. market (Heart 2008.155507). In a metaanalysis of four long-term trials, researchers found that the use of Avandia was associated both with increased heart attacks and a doubling of heart failure (JAMA 2007; 298:1189–1195). Singh, a professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., agrees with Patel that the same conclusion can not be drawn from the ACCORD study because both arms received Avandia. “The only certainty that emerged from ACCORD was that somehow the intensive treatment increased death,” Singh notes. 30 Cardiovascular Business November/December 2008

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Cardiovascular Business - November/December 2008 Contents First Word Cover Story: Practice Management Software Moves Beyond Bean Counting The Death of CME as We Know It? Clinical Study Digets: Triple-Antiplatelet Therapy; Ex-Vioxx Users Beware Shockwaves Subside from the FDA's Echo Contract Warning Burning Question: Does Laser Heart Therapy for Angina Really Work? Advanced Visualization Adds New Practive Dimension Coronary Calcium Scoring Program Reaps Dividends Interventionalists Get Pumped Up About Mechanical Chest Compression Trials Force Physicians to Re-Examine Oral Anti-Diabetic Drug Protocols News & Views Calendar Reader Resources The ACC Corner

Cardiovascular Business - November/December 2008

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