Empagliflozin, a sodium glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor, was recently evaluated in a randomized, controlled trial (RCT) in drug-naïve Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients managed on diet and exercise therapy. Efficacy and safety of empagliflozin in Indian subgroup of patients from a 76-week extension study of the initial multicentric RCT are reported in this article.
In this study, patients were randomized to empagliflozin 10 mg (E10, n = 24), empagliflozin 25 mg (E25, n = 29), placebo ( n = 28) and sitagliptin 100 mg (S100, n = 27). Exploratory efficacy endpoints were changed from baseline to week 76 in glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c, %) and fasting blood glucose (mg/dL) along with body weight (kg) and blood pressure (BP) (mmHg) reduction. Safety analysis included clinically relevant adverse events (AEs).
In 108 randomized patients, adjusted mean reduction in HbA1c compared to placebo was significant with E10 (−0.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) −1.33, −0.28; P = 0.0029) and E25 (−1.11, 95% CI − 1.60, −0.61; P < 0.0001). HbA1c below 7% at week 76 was achieved in significantly higher number of patients with E10 (20.8%, P < 0.0001) and E25 (28.0%, P < 0.0001). There was significant reduction in adjusted mean weight as compared to placebo with E10 (−1.41, 95% CI − 2.51, −0.31; P = 0.0125) and E25 (−1.50, 95% CI − 2.54, −0.46; P = 0.0051) but nonsignificant with S100 (−0.75 95% CI − 1.86, −0.36; P = 0.1842). BP reduction was numerically higher with empagliflozin compared to placebo. AEs were similar in all treatment groups except for genital infections which were more common in E10 (20.8%) but not in E25 (3.4%) as compared to placebo (3.6%). All treatments were well tolerated with no severe AEs.