Newer prescription drugs to treat type 2 diabetes ? including much-promoted Avandia and Actos ? are no more effective or safe than older drugs and cost significantly more, according to the latest report from Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs, a public information project of Consumers U nion.
The report is based primarily on an in-depth analysis of the scientific evidence on oral diabetes drugs by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
The analysis screened the findings of over 216 published studies and was sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. An article based on the new analysis is being published on the Web site of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
“This is truly significant information for the millions of people with diabetes struggling to control their disease, but also struggling with the high cost of their medications,” said Gail Shearer, project director of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs. “The evidence shows that lower-cost, older medicines work just as well for most people.”
The report chooses three low-cost generics as Best Buys — drugs that are effective, as safe as any other used to treat the condition, and offer the best value for the money. The three are metformin, glipizide, and glimepiride. These medicines range in cost from $10 to $60 a month. In contrast, brand-name Avandia costs $131 to $262 a month, depending on dose. Actos costs from $142 to $221, depending on dose, and another new brand-name diabetes drug, Januvia, costs around $200 a month.
The report recommends that most people newly diagnosed with diabetes talk to their doctor about taking metformin first. This medicine is as effective at lowering blood sugar as any other diabetes drug but does not cause weight gain, and poses a low risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). Weight gain and hypoglycemia are vexing problems with several other types of diabetes pills. In addition, most people who take metformin get a slight lowering of their “bad” (LDL) cholesterol.