Acomplia May Be Effective for Diabetes

Oct. 26, 2006 -- A highly anticipated weight loss drug may also be an effective treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Overweight or obese people with diabetes who took the drug Acomplia for a year, in combination with diet and exercise, had modest but significant improvements in blood sugar control and cholesterol, along with modest weight loss.

Acomplia has not yet been approved for sale in the U.S., but it is being sold in Europe.

In the new study, 1,047 overweight or obese people with type 2 diabetes who were already on an oral diabetes drug were randomly assigned to also take either a placebo, 5 milligrams of Acomplia, or 20 milligrams of Acomplia daily.

After a year of treatment, patients who took the higher dose of Acomplia had lost an average of 11.7 pounds, compared with 3 pounds among patients in the placebo group and 5 pounds among patients who took the lower dose of the drug.

Patients taking the higher dose of Acomplia also showed greater improvements in waist circumference, HDL "good" cholesterol levels, triglyceride (blood fat) levels, and blood sugar control.

The study appears in the Oct. 27 online edition of the journal The Lancet. It was funded by Acomplia's maker, Sanofi-Aventis. Sanofi-Aventis is a WebMD sponsor.

The researchers reported that improvements in cholesterol and blood sugar were twice what would have been expected from weight loss alone, indicating that the weight loss drug has an independent effect on these diabetes risk factors.