Study shows Avandamet (Glaxo Smith Kline) superior to metformin alone for Type 2 Diabetes

A new study shows Avandamet (rosiglitazone and metformin), from Glaxo Smith Kline, was more effective in treating youth with recent-onset Type 2 Diabetes than metformin alone. Adding an intensive lifestyle intervention to metformin provided no more benefit than metformin therapy alone. The study also found that metformin therapy alone was not an effective treatment for many of these youth. In fact, metformin had a much higher failure rate in study participants than has been reported in studies of adults treated with metformin alone. The TODAY study is the first major comparative effectiveness trial for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes in young people. It found that treatment with metformin alone was inadequate for maintaining acceptable, long-term, blood glucose control in 51.7 percent of youth over an average follow-up of 46 months. The failure rate was 38.6 percent in the metformin and rosiglitazone group, a 25.3 percent reduction from metformin alone. In the metformin plus lifestyle group the failure rate was 46.6 percent. Results will appear in the New England Journal of Medicine on April 29, 2012.