The weight-loss drug Meridia helps overweight people with Diabetes to shed pounds and control their blood glucose levels, researchers report.

Dr. Roberto Vettor and colleagues from the University of Padua, Italy, combined the results of eight clinical studies that evaluated the effect of Meridia (known generically as sibutramine) on weight loss and glucose control. All told, the data included 1093 obese subjects with type 2 diabetes, including 552 treated with sibutramine and 541 who were given an inactive placebo.

Participants given sibutramine had significantly greater decreases in body weight and waist circumference than those in the placebo group, the team reports in the medical journal Diabetes Care. Fasting blood glucose levels, as well as HbA1c - a measure of long-term glucose control - were also significantly decreased with sibutramine treatment.

Systolic blood pressure - the upper reading - did not differ between the sibutramine and placebo groups, but there were small increases in diastolic (lower reading) blood pressure and heart rate.

“These results demonstrate that the addition of sibutramine to the treatment with diet, oral antidiabetic agents, or insulin may improve glycemic control,” Vettor’s team concludes. “This is a significant finding that could have implications on how these patients are treated in the future.”

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, April 2004