Takeda Diabetes Drug Cuts Heart Attacks

LONDON (Reuters) - Giving diabetes patients Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s drug Actos not only lowers their blood sugar levels but also protects them from heart attacks, researchers said on Monday.

A 5,200-patient clinical study found that Actos, when added to standard therapy, reduced the combined risk of heart attacks, strokes and death by 16 percent in high-risk people with type II diabetes, compared to conventional therapy alone.

Actos, which is co-promoted by Eli Lilly and Co., belongs to a class of medicines called insulin sensitisers that also includes GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Avandia.

They work by making the body's cells more sensitive to insulin, thereby helping people with type II, or adult-onset, diabetes to better use their own natural insulin.

The results of the trial on Actos, which is known by the chemical name pioglitazone, were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes congress in Athens.