Combo diabetes drug Invokamet gets FDA approval in USA

The diabetes medication Vokanamet from Janssen Pharmaceuticals has been given the go ahead for its release in the USA.
The country’s health regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has approved the diabetes combo treatment which combines metformin with another, newer, type 2 diabetes drug called Invokana (canagliflozin).
Marketed in the USA as Invokamet, the medication is available to type 2 diabetes patients who meet the eligibility criteria at two doses (50mg/500mg or 150mg/1000 mg, to be taken twice daily) and is the first fixed–dose combination of an SGLT2 inhibitor with metformin to receive FDA approval.
Sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a relatively new class of oral type 2 diabetes drugs, which work preventing the kidneys from reabsorbing glucose back into the blood. Invokana, one of two SGLT2 inhibitors currently available, was approved in the USA as a single therapy (monotherapy) in March 2013, but only recently (June 2014) received the green light for use on the NHS in England, Wales and Scotland.
Since its launch, it has gone on to become the number one branded non–insulin type 2 diabetes medication, with more than 1 million prescriptions from American endocrinologists.
Invokamet, which was granted European marketing approval in April this year under the trade name Vokanamet, was shown in late-stage Phase III clinical trials to outperform metformin in reducing blood glucose, systolic blood pressure and body weight.