Metformin

A cohort of veterans with type 2 diabetes and reduced kidney function prescribed metformin monotherapy were less likely to experience a major adverse cardiovascular event during 4 years of follow-up when compared with similar adults prescribed sulfonylurea therapy, according to findings published in JAMA.

The FDA recently approved the first oral GLP-1 receptor agonist for diabetes and granted fast track designation to dapagliflozin for worsening heart failure — these were among the top endocrinology stories last week.

Among a cohort of adults with recent type 2 diabetes prescribed metformin, those assigned to receive vildagliptin as an add-on therapy maintained better long-term glycemic control than those who continued on monotherapy, according to findings from the VERIFY trial presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting and simultaneously published in The Lancet.

Adults with type 2 diabetes randomly assigned to a GLP-1 receptor agonist experienced a greater reduction in HbA1c and lost more weight than those assigned to an SGLT2 inhibitor in a head-to-head trial of the two drug classes, according to findings presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting and simultaneously published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

More health care providers prescribe metformin to patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease than other diabetes medications, with most prescriptions coming from primary care physicians, according to findings published in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications.

Many primary care physicians lack knowledge of the risk factors, diagnostic criteria and management and prevention of prediabetes, according to results of a national survey published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The addition of metformin hydrochloride to standard epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors significantly improved PFS and OS among patients with advanced EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinoma, according to randomized phase 2 study results published in JAMA Oncology.

The biguanide metformin, an effective first-line agent for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, has come a long way from the days when the FDA hesitated to approve the drug due to risk for lactic acidosis. Today, metformin, now an inexpensive generic and widely available, has garnered a new reputation as a possible anti-aging wonder pill that influences a host of metabolic and cellular processes closely associated with the development of age-related conditions.

Metformin treatment may lower the risk for asthma exacerbations in patients with diabetes, a recent retrospective cohort study .

In a post hoc analysis of the SAVOR-TIMI 53 trial of patients with diabetes at high risk for CVD, patients taking metformin had lower rates of mortality than those not taking it.