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news.Novartis' blood pressure drug Diovan appears to offer greater protection against diabetes than Pfizer's Norvasc, especially in high-risk individuals, according to data from a long-term study.
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In new results from a trial that pitted Diovan (valsartan) against another blood pressure drug, amlodipine (marketed as Norvasc by Pfizer), patients taking valsartan were found to have a 23% lower risk of developing diabetes during the four or more years of the study. The two drugs had previously been shown to be roughly equivalent in reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
The randomized trial, named ‘Value’, involved 15,313 patients at 942 sites in 31 countries, of whom 9,995 did not have diabetes at the start of the study. By the end of four or more years of follow-up, 11.5% of the patients taking valsartan had developed diabetes, compared with 14.5% of patients taking amlodipine.
The new in-depth analysis of data from the two groups of patients shows that the difference in diabetes onset risk appears to be attributable to valsartan, and not to other underlying factors. However, the researchers did determine that certain risk factors made certain patients more likely to develop diabetes – and that the more of these risk factors a patient had, the more protective the effect of valsartan.
“These new results should help physicians as they select anti-hypertensive agents for their patients, especially for those at higher risk of developing diabetes,” said Dr Ken Jamerson, a U-M professor of internal medicine and chair of the trial for the US. “Since we know from other studies that other hypertension medications such as diuretics come with a higher risk of diabetes, this result is especially interesting.”
Until the Value trial, there had been no direct comparison of the two drugs in either cardiovascular events or new onset of diabetes. Furthermore, this is the first study to compare a drug in the angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) class (valsartan) with a calcium-channel blocker (CCB) drug (amlodipine).
ARBs and CCBs are newer and more expensive than older diuretics and beta blockers but researchers are continuing to find, through studies such as VALUE, that certain drugs may hold more benefit for certain groups of patients than for others.