“Diabetes Drug Study”

Cleveland Clinic News Service

March 31, 2008

Reporter: Mike Jacobson	Photog: Chuck Kelso
Produced by: Mike Jacobson	Split audio track
Package Length: 1:32	PF: 200

ANCHOR LEAD Diabetes drugs have been a hot topic in the medical field lately…and that’s not about to end.

On the heals of a study that shows the popular drug Avandia raises the risk of heart attack in diabetics, a new Cleveland Clinic study—released today—compares the effectiveness of two other often-prescribed diabetes drugs.

Mike Jacobson has the story.

VO/Instructions Sound on Tape (SOT)

“The PERISCOPE study is really in my view a landmark result.” (:04)

Heart line images “A LANDMARK RESULT” BECAUSE IT SHOWS FOR THE FIRST TIME A DIABETES DRUG MAY HALT THE PROGRESSION OF PLAQUE BUILD-UP IN HEART ARTERIES…WHICH IS A MAJOR RISK FACTOR FOR HEART ATTACK.

CG: Dr. Steven Nissen

Cleveland Clinic “What’s going to kill most diabetics is heart disease. And so a strategy for treating diabetes that helps heart disease is really important.” (:10)

Preproduction THE 18-MONTH INTERNATIONAL STUDY, PUBLISHED IN THE “JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION,” INVOLVED MORE THAN 500 PATIENTS WITH TYPE TWO DIABETES. RESEARCHERS WANTED TO MEASURE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO POPULAR DIABETES DRUGS---ACTOS AND AMARYL.

CG: Dr. Steven Nissen

Cleveland Clinic “The result was unequivocal.” (:02)

Animation AMARYL WORKS BY CAUSING THE PANCREAS TO MAKE MORE INSULIN TO LOWER BLOOD SUGAR IN THE BODY.

ACTOS WORKS DIFFERENTLY. IT MAKES THE INSULIN ALREADY IN THE BODY BE MORE EFFICIENT TO LOWER BLOOD SUGAR.

RESEARCHERS SAY IN THE END BOTH DRUGS HAD SIMILAR RESULTS IN LOWERING BLOOD SUGAR. BUT…

CG: Dr. Steven Nissen

Cleveland Clinic “Actos dramatically slowed the progression of coronary disease. And in fact, if anything, there was a little bit less disease after 18 months. The conventional drug Amaryl, there was lots of progression. The plaques were building up at a fairly rapid rate in the artery.” (:15)

Dr. Nissen at office/blood test/crowd DR. NISSEN SAYS THIS STUDY SHEDS IMPORTANT LIGHT ON DIABETES CARE…THAT IT MATTERS HOW YOU LOWER BLOOD SUGAR, NOT NECESSARILY HOW MUCH YOU LOWER IT.

A KEY FINDING AS EXPERTS ESTIMATE 300 MILLION PEOPLE WORLD-WIDE WILL SUFFER FROM DIABETES BY THE YEAR 2025.

MIKE JACOBSON REPORTING.

Anchor Tag Dr. Nissen says researchers will now have to go back and look at all diabetes drugs to try and figure out which produce the best result…not on how much they lower blood sugar but what they do to help lower the risk for heart disease.

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