New trial will examine type 2 diabetes drug's effect on kidney function

Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Researchers are investigating the efficacy of sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors, a new class of drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, on kidney function.

Type 2 diabetes is known to have damaging effects on the kidneys and can result in kidney failure requiring dialysis or kidney transplant.

An ongoing second-phase drug trial called the CANVAS-R trial is testing the effects of canagliflozin, a sodium glucose co-transporter 2, or SGLT2, inhibitor in slowing the decline of kidney function in type 2 diabetes patients.

"CANVAS-R will greatly enhance our knowledge of the effects of canagliflozin on renal disease," Professor Bruce Neal of the George Institute of Global Health at the University of Sydney, Australia, lead author of the study, said in a press release. "In conjunction with the ongoing CANVAS trial, the data will also allow us to assess effects on hard vascular outcomes. The completion of the CANVAS program should approximately double the information we have about the effects of the SGLT2 inhibitor class on vascular disease."

The CANVAS study is examining canagliflozin's efficacy in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease and major adverse cardiac events in type 2 diabetes patients.

The CANVAS-R study results will be combined with the CANVAS results to give doctors and patients recommendations on the use and benefits of canagliflozin.

The study was published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.