As per new studies released at an important diabetes meeting, a new class of drugs being developed to treat Type 2 diabetes demonstrated the potential, so as to help lower blood glucose levels with the help of various mechanisms than what the current treatments take up.

The most advanced drug in the class, dapagliflozin, is undergoing a developmental phase at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and AstraZeneca PLC. The product is designed in such a way, so as to lower blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes by raising the quantity of glucose excreted in the urine of people suffering from diabetes.

The firms have been intending to file for U. S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency authorizations of the product, later this year.

Dapagliflozin as well as canagliflozin, a comparable product being developed by Johnson & Johnson, which will slow down sodium-glucose transporter-2 system that is used by the kidneys to sieve and reabsorb glucose circulating in the blood. The products are recognized as SGLT2 inhibitors.

The dapagliflozin study was taken up by John Wilding, who is a Professor of medicine and the Head of the diabetes and endocrinology clinical research unit at University Hospital Aintree in the United Kingdom.