Cardiovascular safety of noninsulin antidiabetic drugs: facts and promises

Non insulin antidiabetic drugs are widely used in patients with type 2 diabetes. However, the drugs' effect in terms of reducing cardiovascular risk has been the subject of controversy. In 2008, based on the evidence of cardiovascular risk resulting from the use of a number of non insulin antidiabetic drugs, the US Food and Drug Administration published directives on the need to perform cardiovascular safety studies. These directives have helped obtain more evidence, such that at present there are 2 families of drugs that can reduce cardiovascular risk. These recent data have helped us add the reduction of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality to the objective of controlling blood glucose. Nevertheless, research continues with the development of new long-term studies.