Pharmacists Play a Key Role in Diagnosis, Treatment Management of Diabetes

Paul Burton, MD, the Vice President of Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC, explains the role of pharmacists in diagnosing and treating diabetes with their drug, Invokana (canagliflozin).

Transcript:

Paul Burton, MD: Pharmacists have a very important role in diabetes care. They're often a first line of diagnosis in patients with diabetes, and frequently they're the first line of information that patients will go to, and their caregivers as well. Invokana is a remarkable drug. It has tremendous efficacy in terms of reducing hbA1c, one of the key markers of diabetes. It also has other effects; it brings down blood pressure, it has a weight reduction effect as well. So it's a very very powerful drug used for the treatment management of diabetes. What we've shown at this meeting are some very important data around the risk of amputation in patients with diabetes, and how Invokana and other members of that class impact amputation. What we found in the largest ever conducted study of its type, in 700,000 Americans, is that Invokana has no impact in amputation, and indeed that is something we see with the whole SGLT2 class. So what we take away from these very important data for the first time is that the physicians and patients, and their caregivers and pharmacists should be really very comfortable with using Invokana for its great efficacy benefit and very very attractive safety profile.