Sanjay Kaul On The Empa-Reg Outcome Study
The really big medical news today is the publication of the highly anticipated Empa-Reg Outcome study in the New England Journal of Medicine. It is the first large clinical trial with a diabetes drug...
View ArticleA Coke, A Smile, And 120 Million Dollars
As I’ve reported in the past Coca-Cola has a long history of giving money to medical organizations and researchers. Now we know just how much. In response to a New York Times story this summer, Coke...
View ArticleSecond Trial Of Controversial Chelation Therapy Gains Crucial Early Support
The National Institutes of Health is giving money to support the planning of a second trial to test the potential role of chelation therapy in treating patients with myocardial infarction. The first...
View ArticleLancet Sprints To The Front With A Blood Pressure Meta-Analysis
A new meta-analysis published in the Lancet on Friday lends fresh support to calls for more intensive blood pressure treatments. The publication comes only days before the highly anticipated...
View ArticleStudy Finds No Improvement In Quality Of Life With ESAs
Erythropoietin-stimulating agents (ESAs) continue to be widely prescribed despite the absence of evidence demonstrating benefit. TREAT– the first and only large trial to test clinical outcomes with the...
View ArticleTop Line Results Favor Victoza In Large Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial
Novo Nordisk today announced top-line positive results of the LEADERS trial, the cardiovascular outcomes trial testing its diabetes drug Victoza (liraglutide). Liraglutide is a GLP-1 inhibitor used to...
View ArticleFDA Adds Heart Failure Warning To Saxagliptin and Alogliptin Labels
The FDA said on Tuesday that it was adding new warning to the labels of diabetes drugs containing the saxagliptin and alogliptin. The FDA said the drugs “may increase the risk of heart failure,...
View ArticleFDA Expands Metformin Label
— The diabetes drug can now be used in more patients with reduced kidney function The FDA on Friday greatly expanded the indication for the type 2 diabetes drug metformin. Until now use of metformin in...
View ArticleCompanies Plan To Study Diabetes Drug In Heart Failure Population
–New attention paid to the intersection of heart failure and diabetes Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly announced on Wednesday that they were planning two separate outcomes trials to test the effect...
View ArticleClinical Trial Expert’s Deep Dive Into The Important New Liraglutide Trial
–Sanjay Kaul plunges into the LEADER data pool There will be a lot of discussion in the near future about the LEADER trial, the large new trial assessing cardiovascular outcomes with liraglutide...
View ArticleTime For Cardiologists To Start Prescribing Diabetes Drugs?
There’s an emerging consensus that now may be the time for cardiologists to start thinking seriously about prescribing diabetes drugs. Until now most cardiologists have not considered this to be part...
View ArticleEmpagliflozin May Be Poised To Gain CV Indication
–FDA reviewers have raised no major questions ahead of Tuesday’s advisory panel meeting. The FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee will likely lend its support to an important new...
View ArticleExperts Disagree About Cholesterol Screening In Kids
(Updated) –Lack of evidence leads to major disagreement over guidelines. Once again the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has performed an invaluable— and almost certainly thankless— service....
View ArticleNIH Funds Second Round Of Controversial Chelation Tria
–TACT2 will test chelation in heart attack patients with diabetes. The NIH has agreed to fund a second round of a highly controversial study testing the possible benefits of chelation therapy in heart...
View ArticleLDL-Lowering Genetic Variants Linked to Diabetes Risk
–What can genetics tell us about diabetes incidence with cholesterol drugs? Editor’s note: The following guest post was contributed by Marilyn Mann, a well-known advocate for patients with familial...
View ArticleGenetic Studies Offer Hint Of Clinical Benefits-And Risks- of PCSK9 Inhibitors
–Both cardiovascular benefits and increase in diabetes seem likely. There is no more eagerly awaited question in cardiovascular medicine than the clinical role of the PCSK9 inhibitors. The first...
View ArticleMore Shots Fired in ‘Sugar War’
–Industry-sponsored study questions current guidelines on dietary sugar. Dietary guidelines relating to sugar— all of which recommend significant reductions in sugar intake— are based on weak evidence...
View ArticleScreen-And-Treat to Prevent Diabetes Doomed to Fail
Screening must be supplemented by broader public health approaches. Screen and treat strategies to prevent type 2 diabetes are doomed to failure, according to a large new systematic review and...
View ArticleTop Cardiologist Blasts Nutrition Guidelines
–Salim Yusuf says new evidence fails to support many major diet recommendations. One of the world’s top cardiologists says that many of the major nutrition guidelines have no good basis in science....
View ArticleThe Unintended Consequences Of Bicycle Helmets
(UPDATED) –We should encourage people to cycle, not scare them away. From personal experience I can attest that it is almost impossible, in the US at least, to have an intelligent conversation about...
View ArticleHow Statins Make Some People Crazy
–Intelligent discussion about statins is threatened by zealous partisans. What is it about statins that causes so many people to go crazy? I’m not talking about any pharmacological effect of the drugs....
View ArticleLow-Carb And Low-Fat Diets Battle To A Draw
A new study comparing a low-carbohydrate diet with a low-fat diet found no important differences in weight loss or other important outcomes between the two diets. Some experts believe the result shows...
View ArticleQuestions Raised About Invokana Label Expansion For CV Risk Reduction
It hasn’t received a lot of media attention but on Tuesday the FDA approved an expansion of the canagliflozin (Invokana, Janssen) label to include a reduction in the risk of heart attack, stroke, or CV...
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