A two-in-one combination drug has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to treat Type II Diabetes Mellitus. Partners Elli Lily and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. worked together to device a combination pill called Glyxambi which combines empagliflozin and linagliptin.
Empagliflozin and Linagliptin are two previous medicines for Diabetes by each company. In the new pill, however, it works in battling Diabetes by forcing the excessive glucose in the blood to go out through the urine rather than letting it be absorbed in the kidneys.
Empagliflozin is in charge of the medicine's capacity to force the excess glucose out through the urine while Linagliptin inhibits DPP4 to stimulate the production of insulin, according to Fierce BioTech.
A study was funded by Boehringer and Eli Lilly wherein clinical trials of the drug showed that patients who had been taking the pill for 24 weeks had lower readings of HbA1c than when they took in the two medicines separately, as reported by Diabetes.co.uk.
On February 2, FDA announced their approval of Glyxamb in the hopes that it may be the solution to the growing rate of people with Diabetes nowadays. According to the World Health Organization, around 9% of adults from 18 years old and above have diabetes and an estimated 1.5 million deaths were linked to Diabetes.
Diabetes is a chronic endocrine disease that occurs due to the pancreas' inability to produce insulin, or in some cases it does not produce enough insulin to synthesize sugars. Hence, the blood sugar shoots up if the excess glucose or sugar goes to the blood.
According to Mike Mason, Eli Lilly diabetes division vice president said in a statement, "Half of people with type 2 diabetes do not achieve recommended blood sugar control, making new treatment options more important than ever."
One of the most common side effects of this drug is that it can make the patient urinate more than usual.