The Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) has granted reimbursement for empagliflozin, developed by Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus, for once-daily administration in 10 and 25 mg tablets.
Empagliflozin, which received marketing authorization from the European Commission in May 2014, belongs to the class of inhibitors of SGLT2, a transporter protein responsible for approximately 90% of reabsorption by the kidney of filtered glucose from blood. SGLT2 overexpression is observed in people with type 2 diabetes, which contributes to elevated blood glucose levels.
Empagliflozin reduces the ability of the kidney to reabsorb glucose, inducing its excretion in the urine, with the advantage of reducing glycemic values and HbA1c and inducing weight loss and a decrease in blood pressure.
"The therapy of type 2 diabetes is enhanced by another inhibitor of renal glucose reabsorption" comments Stefano Del Prato, director of the Metabolism and Diabetology Unit at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine of the University of Pisa. «This class of drugs has overturned an old concept that we doctors had learned on the benches - he specifies - and that is that glycosuria was an index of glycemic decompensation. Now the elimination of glucose through the kidney takes on a positive connotation».
