Key clinical point: Vildagliptin plus metformin provided greater and durable long-term benefits than metformin alone in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes.

Major finding: An early-combination treatment strategy significantly reduced the relative risk of time-to-initial-treatment failure by 49% versus monotherapy (hazard ratio, 0.51; 95% confidence interval, 0.45-0.58; P less than .0001).

Study details: A 5-year, phase 4, randomized, parallel-group study designed to compare the durability of glycemic control achieved with a combination of vildagliptin and metformin versus metformin alone in 2001 treatment-naive patients with type 2 diabetes.

Disclosures: Novartis funded the study. Dr. Matthews reported serving on advisory boards or as a consultant for Novo Nordisk, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and other companies. He is currently the president of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and has given lectures for Novartis and other companies. Dr. Stumvoll reported receiving speaker’s honoraria and consulting fees from Novartis and other companies. Dr. Del Prato serves or has served on advisory boards and the speakers’ bureaus for, and reported receiving research support from, Novartis and other companies.