This is a new drug said to give Merck some competition 
but there needs to be a little more data on side effects the article states. Sugar is sent from the body through urination which doesn’t’ normally happen until high glucose levels are reached. J and J has filed for regulatory clearance to sell the drug in the US.
Some MDs are cautious with the results and use so far as the drug is basically using a “side effect” as a treatment. In other words when glucose levels become high the body will send out via urination, but from what I read here this somewhat puts the body on a schedule to release sugar whether the levels are extremely high or just relatively high or maybe not at all?
Patients with kidney disease still need more studies as it is not known if the drug will represent any issues for them. So far the biggest side effect is bacterial or fungal infections from having a urinary tract flooded with glucose all the time.
Frequent trips to the bathroom could also be a side effect so we don’t want to add to this and get another drug that is sold to stop incontinence since this drug is designed to do that as part of the treatment, so anyone with over active bladder might not be a good candidate for this drug. BD
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has turned one of diabetes’ most worrisome warning signs into a treatment that lowers dangerously high levels of blood-sugar before the disease can cause blindness, kidney damage and heart disease.
The demand for novel diabetes drugs is soaring as rising
obesity rates push the condition to epidemic levels, affecting nearly 347 million people worldwide. While 10 different types of drugs are sold to treat diabetes, physicians still struggle to control their patients’ blood-sugar levels. The novel strategy developed by J&J sheds sugar through the urine, after it’s filtered from the blood by the kidneys and before it can be reabsorbed into the body.
“Using a side effect of uncontrolled diabetes as a primary mode of treatment is unconventional, to say the least,” said Adrian Vella, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, by telephone. “We still need to understand how severe and how frequent the potential side effects associated with these medications are.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-08/j-j-diabetes-drug-seen-challenging-merck-s-market-leader-health.html
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