A new ‘triple therapy’ for regulating blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes has been recommended for use on the NHS in draft guidance by the UK’s NICE.
Currently in the final stages of consultation, the guidance endorses the use of AstraZeneca’s SGLT2 inhibitor Forxiga (dapagliflozin) in patients already taking two drugs for blood sugar control without success.
Prof Carole Longson, director of NICE’s centre for health technology evaluation, said: “Tailoring treatments for type 2 diabetes to each person’s individual needs is essential and having a range of drug options makes this easier.
“This guidance plans to recommend dapagliflozin in triple therapy – only in combination with metformin and sulfonylurea – which will widen the choice available.”
AZ’s Forxiga – developed in partnership with Bristol-Myers Squibb – was approved for NHS use after a U-turn on its cost-effectiveness in 2013, but restricted to a once-daily dose in combination with either metformin or insulin for patients unable to take sulphonylurea medicines or at significant risk of hypoglycaemia.
It has since been backed as a first-line treatment for patients who cannot tolerate metformin or sulfonylureas, along with Boehringer Ingelheim/Lilly and Johnson & Johnson’s rival SGLT2 inhibitors Jardiance (empagliflozin) and Invokana (canagliflozin).
Forxiga’s latest NICE appraisal went straight to final draft stage, bypassing the usual process to quickly provide another treatment option to the three million people living with type 2 diabetes in the UK. If approved, it will join Jardiance and Invokana as ‘triple therapy’ options.
AstraZeneca’s diabetes drug is one of its fastest-growing products, bringing in sales of $376m in the first half of 2016. The firm is looking to expand Forxiga into kidney disease and heart failure, where it has begun recruitment for phase II trials.