ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 8, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Treatment with sitagliptin, a DPP-4 inhibitor, versus placebo for median 3 years in 14,671 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and established cardiovascular (CV) disease showed non-inferiority for the primary composite cardiovascular endpoint of the Trial Evaluating Cardiovascular Outcomes with Sitagliptin (TECOS), and no increase in hospitalization for heart failure in the sitagliptin group.

Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141105/156803LOGO

Researchers at the University of Oxford Diabetes Trials Unit (DTU) and the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) have found that among patients with T2DM and established CV disease, addition of sitagliptin to usual care did not impact on the risk for major adverse CV events, hospitalization for heart failure or adverse events. Concerns about possible links between incretin-based therapies and effects on the pancreas have been raised. In TECOS, acute pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer were uncommon and not statistically significant different between groups. Numerically, in the sitagliptin group there were more patients with acute pancreatitis and fewer patients with pancreatic cancer than in the placebo group.

Professor Rury Holman of Oxford University, Joint Chair of the study, commented ‘TECOS provides reassurance that sitagliptin may be used safely to improve blood glucose levels in a diverse group of T2DM patients at high cardiovascular risk without impacting on rates of cardiovascular complications or heart failure.’

Professor Eric Peterson, DCRI Executive Director at Duke University and Joint Chair of the study, stated: ‘TECOS is an excellent example of academic and industry collaborative research.’

TECOS was designed, run, and analyzed independently by DTU and DCRI, in an academic collaboration with Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada), who sponsored and funded the study.

The TECOS results will be published online in the New England Journal of Medicine on Monday 8^th June 2015. A slide set reflecting the data presented at the American Diabetes Association will be available to download from http://www.dtu.ox.ac.uk/TECOS/ after 6.30pm EDT (11.30pm BST) the same day.

Notes for Editors

For more information please contact:

The News and Information Office, University of Oxford, (+44) 1865 270046. [email protected].  

Susan Landis, Strategic Communications. [email protected]. (+1) 919-668-5759.

*The American Diabetes Association is holding its 75th Annual Scientific Sessions in Boston, USA, on June 5 – 9 2015. See http://scientificsessions.diabetes.org for more information. 

*The American Diabetes Association is leading the fight to Stop Diabetes® and its deadly consequences and fighting for those affected by diabetes. The Association funds research to prevent, cure and manage diabetes; delivers services to hundreds of communities; provides objective and credible information; and gives voice to those denied their rights because of diabetes. For the past 75 years, our mission has been to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. For more information please call the American Diabetes Association at 1-800-DIABETES (800-342-2383) or visit diabetes.org. Information from both these sources is available in English and Spanish.

*Trial Evaluating Cardiovascular Outcomes with Sitagliptin (TECOS) was an event-driven trial conducted in adults with type 2 diabetes and a history of cardiovascular (CV) disease in a usual care setting. The trial was designed to assess the CV safety of long-term treatment with sitagliptin (JANUVIA^®) when added to existing therapy compared with placebo. The primary composite CV outcome was the time to the first confirmed event of CV-related death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for unstable angina. TECOS enrolled 14,724 participants from 38 countries between December 2008 and July 2012 with a median follow-up of three years. See TECOS-study.org

*Funding was provided by Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA, (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) who market sitagliptin (JANUVIA^®). See www.merck.com

*The Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) is the world’s largest academic clinical research organization. DCRI research spans multiple disciplines, from pediatrics to geriatrics, primary care to subspecialty medicine, and genomics to proteomics. The DCRI is also home to the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Diseases, the largest and oldest institutional cardiovascular database in the world, which continues to inform clinical decision-making 40 years after its founding. The DCRI has conducted studies at more than 37,000 sites in 65 countries; completed more than 970 phase I-IV clinical trials, studies of patient outcomes and analyses of comparative effectiveness; managed national patient registries; enrolled more than 1.2 million patients in DCRI studies; and published more than 9,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

*The Diabetes Trials Unit (DTU) is a fully registered UKCRC Clinical Trials Unit and a founder member of Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism (OCDEM). It is one of only a handful of Academic Research Organisations (AROs) worldwide that specialise in performing diabetes-related mega trials. The DTU designs, runs and analyses large-scale Phase III/IV interventional clinical outcome trials nationally and internationally, often in collaboration with other AROs and pharmaceutical companies. Currently the DTU is undertaking 4 large-scale cardiovascular outcome trials in 40 countries recruiting more than 48,000 patients. See www.dtu.ox.ac.uk.

*OCDEM (Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism) is a pioneering centre at Oxford University which combines clinical care, research and education in diabetes, endocrine and metabolic diseases. By promoting world-class research, it aims to enhance understanding of these diseases and to accelerate the search for new treatments and cures. See www.ocdem.ox.ac.uk