Posted by Michael Wonder on 18 Jan 2017
Will cardiovascular outcomes data on newer diabetes drugs bury the older agents?
17 January 2017 - Patients with type 2 diabetes are treated with many drugs other than insulin. In 2014, Medicare paid 58 million claims for non-insulin diabetes drugs.
Most of these claims were for agents that have been used for many years: 53% were for metformin, the consensus first-line drug; 30% for sulphonylureas; and 5% for thiazolidinediones. Almost all other claims were for drugs approved since 2005: dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors (13%), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists (2%), and sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors (1%).1 These drug classes are recommended for second-line use after metformin.
