The Los Angeles Times (3/20, Roan) "Booster Shots" blog reports dapagliflozin "looks to have significant benefits and risks," according to a Study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers looked at "808 people who were randomly assigned to receive a placebo or dapagliflozin in addition to insulin and other diabetes medications for almost one year" and "found that the people on dapagliflozin were able to reduce their doses of insulin and lost more weight than those in the placebo group, but they had more bouts of hyperglycemia." In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Steven A. Smith, a professor of medicine at the Mayo College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, wrote, "Not enough is known about the long-term safety of dapagliflozin."
"Dapagliflozin is from a new class of type 2 diabetes medications that work by blocking the ability of the kidneys to hold sugar" and then "causes the kidneys to release sugar as waste in the urine," HealthDay (3/19, Gordon) explained. "Numerous clinical trials have found dapagliflozin to be effective at lowering blood sugar levels" but "despite this beneficial effect, the US Food and Drug Administration recently decided not to approve dapagliflozin until more information is available about its possible long-term side effects. The most significant concern cited by the FDA was a potential increase in the rates of bladder and breast cancer in people taking the drug.
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