Onglyza (Saxagliptin)

Onglyza Information:

With so many diabetes medications on the market, you may be wondering what is the advantage of taking Onglyza, taking into account the cost. Onglyza and the DPP4-inhibitor class of medications is predicted to be one of the most popular classes of diabetes treatment drugs by 2015,

What is Onglyza, how old is this new diabetic medication?
Onglyza (chemical name-saxagliptin) belongs to a new group of medications called the DPP4-inhibitors, Onglyza has been on the market as an effective diabetic medication in 2009. Onglyza stimulates the pancreas to produce more insulin after a meal, this increased insulin clears sugar from your blood and hence lowers blood sugar. One important thing to note is that Onglyza should not be used alone, if your physician has put you on Onglyza as a sole treatment for your diabetes, you should question his/her rationale for doing this.
Onglyza is most commonly used in combination with metformin or a sulfonylurea (e.g., gliclazide, glyburide) to improve blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes. It is important to note that Onglyza should be used as part of an overall diabetes management plan that includes a diet and exercise program.

How do I take Onglyza?
Unlike many other diabetic medications, Onglyza is taken just once daily. This has an advantage over other commonly used diabetes medications as there is less confusion and better compliance. Basically, the more often you have to take a medication daily, the more likely you are to forget and the less likely you are to get maximum benefits from the medication. The usual dose is 5mg, which can be taken with or without food.

How effective is Onglyza?
We will answer this question based on studies conducted with Onglyza. Most commonly, these involve studies with Metformin. When a patient is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. The most commonly used first drug in the treatment plan is Metformin. However, in a long-term outlook it has been shown that rarely a patient is effectively controlled with just one diabetes medication. Onglyza presents an attractive option as an add-on medication to patients on Metformin who are not achieving target blood glucose levels.

To demonstrate the effectiveness of Onglyza, it was studied as an add on with Metformin, in viewing the overall reduction in a HbA1C levels. HbA1C basically means how much sugar is in a patients Red Blood Cells. A HbA1C target of 7% or less is desired in diabetic patients.

The study which lasted 76 weeks followed 4 trial groups,
1)Metformin + placebo
2)Onglyza + metformin
3)Onglyza + placebo
To measure the success of these groups, the overall ability to reduce HbA1C below 7% was measured.

The following results were obtained after 76 weeks.
1)Metformin + placebo ------ 37% achieved the desired level
2)Onglyza + metformin ------ 51% achieved the desired level
3)Onglyza + placebo ------- 25% achieved the desired level

From the results of this, 3 things can be summarized.
1)Metformin is a better first choice as an initial drug therapy for treatment of Type 2 Diabetes.
2)Onglyza should not be used as sole-therapy in treatment of diabetes.
3)Onglyza IS EFFECTIVE in reducing the patients diabetes state.

This is clinically significant as a reduction in a patients HbA1C leads to lower incidence of long-term diabetes complications (vision problems, nerve damage, kdney disease).

What is the difference between Onglyza, Januvia, and Galvus?? All 3 medications belong to the same drug class (DPP4-inhibitor) and none of the above should be used as the sole treatment in Type 2 Diabetes. Studies between these medications have all shown similar effectiveness in controlling diabetes, and a similar side-effect profile. Therefore, which drug a doctor chooses is ultimately a choice of preferences by the physician.

Onglyza Side Effects:

The most common side effects include upper respiratory tract infection, headache, stomach ache. These are rare and if they do happen will go away as the patient adjusts to the medication. Hypoglycemia (too much lowering of the blood sugar) may occur in people you are taking a sulfonylurea (drug class that commonly includes the anti-diabetic drug glyburide). This will happen rarely and if it does happen, you will require a modification of your sulfonylurea drug. Overall, Onglyza is well tolerated and it is rare a patient will have to discontinue this medication due to side-effects.