Severe hypoglycemia, as defined by American Diabetes Association classification, was very rare across trials, except that 4.7% of African Americans saw this adverse event on high-dose semaglutide. Incidence in other subgroups, at either dose, ranged from 0% to 2.4%.
Otherwise, the medication was generally well tolerated, though gastrointestinal side effects were seen. “Asian people have a little higher GI side effects – up to 50% of Asians did develop GI side effects, and between 10% and 13% of Asians had to stop medication due to side effects,” said Dr. Desouza. “So I think that would be the one caveat in terms of tolerance that we did learn.”
The SUSTAIN trials were sponsored by Novo Nordisk. Dr. Desouza has received consulting fees for Novo Nordisk and has received grant support from several other pharmaceutical companies. Two coauthors are Novo Nordisk employees.
SOURCE: Desouza C et al. AACE 2018, Abstract 298