Avandia Response

Avandia® (rosiglitazone maleate) is a drug for the treatment of Type II diabetes, a condition that affects an estimated 20 million people in the United States. Since the incidence of Type II diabetes increases with age and is correlated with obesity, the worldwide number of diabetic patients is also growing rapidly as people adopt unhealthy diets and more sedentary lifestyles. Like other diabetes treatments, Avandia helps patients to better control their blood sugar levels and avoid the progression and complications of this chronic disease. Based on studies referenced in the manufacturer’s prescribing information, approximately half of the patients taking Avandia will respond to the drug, and unfortunately, because both patients and the underlying causes of diabetes are heterogeneous, doctors cannot predict which drug or combination of drugs will work best for a particular patient. Moreover, it may require eight to twelve weeks of therapy to detect a response based on current standard tests. In collaboration with a pharmaceutical company partner, we studied plasma and urine samples from 83 male diabetic patients, each of whom was treated with one of three oral diabetes drugs for eight weeks. In this study, we discovered a biomarker that can predict a patient’s response to Avandia before treatment is initiated. None of the conventional blood tests for diabetes were able to make this prediction. We are in the product development phase for a molecular diagnostic test based on this biomarker. This test would help doctors to select patients for Avandia treatment.