Efficacy of adding once- and thrice-daily voglibose in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients treated with alogliptin

We investigated the efficacy of once- and thrice-daily voglibose, an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor, as an add-on therapy to alogliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor, on glycemic control in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients. In this 12-week, parallel-group, randomized, open-label, three-arm trial, 151 participants treated with alogliptin were randomly allocated to the following three arms; one was the group to initiate once-daily voglibose, another was to initiate thrice daily voglibose, and the other was the control group. The primary endpoint was the change of hemoglobin A1c levels at the end of the study, which was revealed to be significantly different among groups (p < 0.001). The once- and thrice-daily voglibose groups had a significantly greater reduction than the control group; the difference was -0.27% and -0.33% in the once- and thrice-daily voglibose group, respectively (both p < 0.001). No significant difference was observed between the two voglibose groups (p = 0.615). On the other hand, the increase of 1,5-anhydroglucitol levels were 3.3 and 5.5 μg/ml greater in the once- and thrice-daily voglibose groups than the control group (both p < 0.001). The thrice-daily voglibose group had a greater increase of 1,5- anhydroglucitol levels compared to the once-daily voglibose group (p = 0.005). In conclusion, once- and thrice-daily voglibose as an add-on to alogliptin significantly improved glycemic control in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients.