Dulaglutide effective for T2DM in Asians

Treatment with dulaglutide is both effective and safe in Asians with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a recent meta-analysis has found.

A total of four randomized controlled trials and one observational study were included in the present analysis, corresponding to 2,344 Asian T2DM patients. Dulaglutide was given in 0.75-mg and 1.5-mg subcutaneous doses once-weekly. Common hypoglycaemic medications used as comparators included liraglutide, glimepiride, and insulin glargine.

Both dulaglutide doses were significantly effective in suppressing glycated haemoglobin relative to baseline (0.75 mg: weighted mean difference [WMD], –0.29, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], –0.28 to –0.11; p<0.0001; 1.5 mg: WMD, –0.49, 95 percent CI, –0.67 to –0.30; p<0.0001).

A similar effect was reported for body weight, such that two doses of the 0.75-mg (WMD, –1.43, 95 percent CI, –2.38 to –0.48; p=0.003) and 1.5-mg (WMD, –2.12, 95 percent CI, –2.71 to –1.53; p<0.0001) dulaglutide doses led to a significant decrease in weight, as compared to controls.

In contrast, dulaglutide exerted no significant impact on fasting blood glucose and blood pressure.

In terms of safety, researchers detected a slightly but significantly higher rate of adverse events in the 0.75-mg dulaglutide dose as opposed to first-line hypoglycaemic drugs (risk ratio [RR], 1.09, 95 percent CI, 1.01–1.18; p=0.02). A stronger magnitude of correlation was found for the 1.5-mg dose but failed to reach significance (RR, 1.12, 95 percent CI, 0.95–1.35; p=0.21).

In particular, hypoglycaemic episodes seemed to be significantly more common in the 0.75-mg (p=0.02) and 1.5-mg (p=0.002) dose groups.