Type 2 diabetes is a chronic, progressive illness often linked to premature death, and affects approximately 230 million individuals worldwide, nearly 6 percent of the world’s adult population. The IDF (International Diabetes Federation) estimates that by 2025, more than 350 million people worldwide will suffer from this disease.
A body with type 2 diabetes makes too little insulin or uses the hormone inefficiently. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes in UAE and accounts for about 95 percent of all people with the disease. Obesity and inactive lifestyle in UAE is underlined as the main cause of the disease which is affecting twice as much people in emirates than else where in the world.
The result of a new study called ADOPT (A Diabetes Outcome Progression Trial) was discussed today in UAE with key physicians and its positive implication on people with recent diagnosis of diabetes whom are drug naive. This study demonstrated that initial treatment with rosiglitazone maleate reduced the risk of monotherapy failure in people with type 2 diabetes by 32 percent compared to metformin (p<0.001), and 63 percent compared to glyburide (p<0.001) at five years.
" The ADOPT study’s results will have a very important impact on people with type 2 diabetes in UAE, particularly those patients who have been recently diagnosed and those with whom monotherapy failed to work. “We are talking about a huge number of patients here” said Dr. Madani, Head of Emirates Diabetes Society. "These results will help physicians choose the best way to manage their patients earlier in the disease and ultimately help avoid long-term complications of diabetes. It is really a hope for diabetics and their families". Over time, untreated or under treated type 2 diabetes makes it more difficult to maintain blood sugar levels and can cause blindness, kidney failure, nerve damage, amputation, heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.
“We know that type 2 diabetes is a progressive disease. We also recognized that it's imperative to aggressively manage the disease earlier with effective therapies in addition to lifestyle changes such as regular exercise and dietary options. Unfortunately lifestyle changes alone are often not sufficient. In order to achieve and maintain optimal diabetes control, patients need effective treatment. This is the first long-term study to demonstrate that the progressive loss of blood sugar control can be delayed and target blood sugar levels can be maintained for a longer period with rosiglitazone than other prescribed oral antidiabetic agents” " said Dr. Madani
ADOPT is an international, multi-centre, randomised, double-blind study involving 4,360 drug-naïve people who had been recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (≤ 3 years) at over 400 sites throughout North America and Europe.  People included in the study were randomised to rosiglitazone, a sulphonylurea (glyburide), or metformin and titrated to the maximum daily effective doses (rosiglitazone 4 mg twice daily; metformin 1 g twice daily; glyburide 7.5 mg twice daily).  These people were followed for four to six years to examine the long-term efficiency of each drug used as initial monotherapy on blood sugar control, insulin resistance and β-cell function.  At the time of monotherapy failure, 99.3 percent, 98.6 percent and 99.0 percent of participants were receiving maximal doses of rosiglitazone, metformin and glyburide, respectively.
“ADOPT provides evidence supporting earlier treatment with rosiglitazone in the management of type 2 diabetes.  Rosiglitazone was more effective than metformin or glyburide in delaying the progressive loss of blood sugar control, as measured in the study by fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycosylated (or glycated) haemoglobin levels (HbA1c). The primary reasons for loss of blood sugar control are increasing insulin resistance and declining ß-cell function.  ADOPT demonstrated that rosiglitazone significantly improved insulin sensitivity (p<0.001 versus metformin or glyburide) and reduced the rate of loss of ß-cell function (p=0.02 versus metformin; p<0.001 versus glyburide).
ADOPT provides an important update to findings from the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) released in 1998, which preceded availability of thiazolidinediones (TZDs) and included only two of the three oral agents evaluated in ADOPT – metformin and sulphonylurea.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body does not respond properly to, or produce enough, insulin.15  Over time the chronic, progressive nature of type 2 diabetes makes it more difficult to maintain blood sugar levels and therefore, more than one medication may be required to reach recommended goals.16,17  Keeping blood sugar levels in control is important in preventing diabetes-related conditions such as eye disease (blindness), kidney disease (kidney failure/dialysis), nerve damage, amputation, heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.16,18-21  Such complications can decrease a person’s quality of life and result in increased health care costs.22  Untreated diabetes can lead to death.  Every ten seconds, a person dies from a diabetes-related cause.23

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