Vlado Perkovic, MBBS PhD FRACP FASN
Executive Director, George Clinical

Recently, the FDA said it will review possible heart risks associated with saxagliptin, a widely used diabetes drug.

Executive Director of George Clinical and leading researcher, Professor Vlado Perkovic, commented that the higher observed rate of heart failure with saxagliptin compared to placebo in the SAVOR trial was a surprise, and it is not clear whether this observation is real, nor what the cause of such an increase might be.

This is a very important observation given the lack of demonstrated benefits with this class of agents to date. There will be more to learn when trials such as TECOS, CAROLINA and others report their results over the next couple of years.