Sanofi’s Acomplia drug helps in diabetes -study

Sanofi-Aventis SA’s drug Acomplia can significantly improve blood sugar control in patients with type 2 diabetes who are not adequately controlled with insulin therapy, the French drugmaker said on Tuesday.

But patients on the drug are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, according to clinical trial results presented at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting in San Francisco.

Acomplia, also known as rimonabant or Zimulti, was once viewed by analysts as a multibillion-dollar-a-year seller for Sanofi. But its future has been uncertain since a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel rejected it as a weight-loss treatment a year ago, amid fears it may cause suicidal thoughts.

It remains on sale in Europe and Sanofi is now seeking to reposition the product as a therapy for type 2 diabetes, which is closely linked to obesity.

In the latest study, a 20 mg dose of Acomplia significantly improved HbA1c - a standard blood measure that is indicative of a patient’s glucose levels - by 0.89 percent from the baseline value and by 0.64 percent over the control group.

The target level for diabetic patients is a HbA1C reading of less than 7 percent, and Acomplia tripled the number of patients reaching this goal.

Lead investigator Dr. Priscilla Hollander of Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, said the trial showed there was still room for significant improvement in glucose control, even in diabetics who have been on insulin for years.

The 368 diabetes patients participating in the 11-month study had been treated with insulin for an average of six years.

Cases of anxiety were reported in 14 percent of those on Acomplia, against 5 percent in the control group, and depression was also seen in 14 percent, against 7.5 percent in the control arm. Most of the patients had a medical history of depression.

Acomplia is the first in a new class of drugs that selectively turns off the same so-called cannabinoid receptor in the brain that makes people hungry when they smoke cannabis.

Sanofi plans to submit the drug worldwide as a treatment for type 2 diabetes in 2009.

LONDON (Reuters)