Cholesterol-Lowering Drug Delays Diabetes Onset

Treatment with bezafibrate (Bezalip ®) to lower cholesterol in people with heart disease also reduces the risk of developing full-blown diabetes in those who have high blood sugar levels, doctors report.

Their research suggests that the benefit is similar to that achieved with anti-diabetes medication.

While bezafibrate is used to lower cholesterol levels, it is already recognized as effective in reducing blood glucose levels in people with overt diabetes, Dr. Alexander Tenenbaum and associates explain.

The investigators studied 303 patients with a history of heart attack or heart-related chest pain (angina) or both, and who had fasting blood glucose levels in the high range but were not being treated for diabetes.

Among the 156 patients randomly assigned to treatment with bezafibrate, fasting blood glucose levels declined during the first year, but this did not happen among the 147 assigned to a control group. Blood sugar levels then remained lower in the treatment group over an average of six years.

New-onset diabetes was diagnosed in 54 percent of the control group and 42 percent of the bezafibrate group, and the average time until diabetes started was 3.8 years and 4.6 years, respectively.

"Whether the combination of bezafibrate with other recommended drugs for secondary prevention (statins and ACE inhibitors) would be as efficacious as suggested by our results remains to be determined," Tenenbaum’s team points out.
American Heart Association ‘s journal Circulation, Sept 2005