Not a game changer, by any means, but good news for Whitehouse Station this morning, out of DC. Per the United States FDA's announcement, just now:
. . . .The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Juvisync (sitagliptin and simvastatin), a fixed-dose combination (FDC) prescription medication that contains two previously approved medicines in one tablet for use in adults who need both sitagliptin and simvastatin.
About 20 million people in the United States have type 2 diabetes, and they often have high cholesterol levels as well. These conditions can lead to increased risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and blindness, among other chronic conditions, particularly if left untreated or poorly treated.
Sitagliptin is a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor that enhances the body's own ability to lower elevated blood sugar and is approved for use in combination with diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. Simvastatin is an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, or statin, approved for use with diet and exercise to reduce the amount of “bad cholesterol” (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol or LDL-C) in the blood.
"This is the first product to combine a type 2 diabetes drug with a cholesterol lowering drug in one tablet,” said Mary H. Parks, M.D., director of the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “However, to ensure safe and effective use of this product, tablets containing different doses of sitagliptin and simvastatin in fixed-dose combination have been developed to meet the different needs of individual patients. Dose selection should factor in what other drugs the patient is taking."
This FDC is based on substantial experience with both sitagliptin and simvastatin, and the ability of the single tablet to deliver similar amounts of the drugs to the bloodstream as when sitagliptin and simvastatin are taken separately. Juvisync is a convenience combination and should only be prescribed when it is appropriate for a patient to be placed on both of these drugs. . . .
Both of the components of the combo are mature legacy drugs -- still the patient compliance rates should be higher for the two, when bundled. And that should be worth something.
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