New Data Shows Rimonabant Benefited Patients with Type 2 Diabetes by Improving Blood Sugar Control, Reducing Weight and Acting on Other Cardiometabolic Risk Factors.

- First Rimonabant Trial with HbA1c as a Primary Endpoint -

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sanofi-aventis announced today that new data on rimonabant, its first-in-class cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptor blocker, showed that patients with type 2 diabetes not currently treated with anti-diabetic medications experienced significant improvements in blood sugar control and weight as well as other risk factors such as HDL-cholesterol (good cholesterol) and triglycerides when compared to placebo. The study, called SERENADE, was presented today at the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) World Diabetes Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. SERENADE is the second study demonstrating that rimonabant significantly improved blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.

In the SERENADE study, treatment-naive type 2 diabetes patients receiving rimonabant 20mg per day for a duration of six months significantly lowered their HbA1c levels by 0.8% from a baseline value of 7.9 as compared to a reduction of 0.3% in the placebo group (p=0.002). In addition, patients with an HbA1c level greater than or equal to 8.5% at baseline, significantly reduced their HbA1c by 1.9% with rimonabant as compared to 0.7% with placebo (p<0.0009). Over 50% of patients in the rimonabant arm of the trial achieved HbA1c levels below 7%, the target for good glucose control as recommended by the American Diabetes Association (ADA).(i) Importantly, these improvements in blood glucose control were accompanied by significant and clinically meaningful reductions in body weight of 6.7 kg (14.8 lbs) in patients treated with rimonabant 20mg, while those patients on placebo lost…