Actos beats Avandia in sugar, fat control: study

LONDON (Reuters) - Giving patients a starting dose of Takeda Pharmaceutical's diabetes drug Actos gives better control of blood sugar and lipid levels than using GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia, according to new clinical trial results.

The findings, presented at a medical meeting in Amsterdam on Wednesday, will add fuel to Takeda's campaign to prove the superiority of its drug over Avandia, which has been tarnished recently by fears it may increase heart attack risks.

An analysis of data from the first three months of a six-month head-to-head study of the two drugs found a starting dose of 30 milligrams of Actos was more effective than a starting dose of 4 milligrams of Avandia in improving blood sugar levels.

Actos also significantly decreased triglyceride and "bad" LDL cholesterol levels and markedly improved "good" HDL cholesterol.

The research on the two drugs, known generically as pioglitazone and rosiglitazone, was presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

"A likely explanation for the different effects on heart attack and strokes between the two drugs could be the favorable effect of pioglitazone in increasing HDL cholesterol without adverse effects on LDL as demonstrated in the... study," said John Betteridge, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at University College, London.