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French diabetes meds could be much more effective than standard treatments

Category: Diabetes

In what could be good news for people whose blood testing for diabetes produced positive results, Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical company, has stated that its insulin product Lantus is three times as effective at reducing blood sugar levels compared to other medications.

Sanofi says it came about these findings during a six-year study that included more than 12,500 subjects who had, at one point, undergone blood testing that indicated they had the insulin deficiency condition.

"Contrary to conventional understanding that diabetes is a progressively worsening disease, these new results from this sub-study suggest that achieving and maintaining glycemic control early with insulin glargine might positively affect the natural history of the disease," said Riccardo Perfetti, Sanofi's vice president of Medical Affairs and Global Diabetes.

According to Reuters, Lantus accounts for 80 percent of the global market share for continuously acting insulin, and more than $5 billion worth of the treatment was sold in 2011. The news source also reports that Sanofi has had to focus its efforts on beating competition from drug manufacturers that produce facsimiles of its products at lower costs.