Express Pharma

Janssen India launches Invokana to treat type II diabetes

Invokana has been shown to reduce glucose levels in adults who have previously not been able to achieve adequate control through diet and lifestyle measures, or through treatment with other blood sugar lowering medicines

Janssen, one of the Janssen pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson, has launched Invokana, a highly differentiated treatment option for the estimated 67 million people suffering from diabetes in India.

Taken orally once a day, Invokana belongs to a new class of medications called sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, which work in a completely different way to other classes of type 2 diabetes medications. Invokana has been shown to reduce glucose levels in adults who have previously not been able to achieve adequate control through diet and lifestyle measures, or through treatment with other blood sugar lowering medicines.

Invokana and other SGLT2 inhibitors work differently from other classes type II diabetes treatments by blocking the re-absorption of glucose in the kidneys. The result is that more glucose is excreted in the urine thereby reducing levels of blood glucose. The efficacy of Invokana has been studied in trials involving over 10000 patients, making it one of the largest development programmes for type II diabetes in the world. The trials, which involved significant number of subjects from India (1038), showed Invokana to increase the loss of glucose through urine, helping restore normo-glycemia with low hypoglycemia risk.

Sanjiv Navangul, Managing Director, Janssen India said, “Invokana has a very good safety profile, including a significant weight loss. India is among the earliest countries where this drug has been launched. At pricing level we will always have India specific drug pricing.”

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