From the 67th annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association: Nebivolol demonstrates neutral effect on glucose levels

Key Points

Nebivolol, an investigational (NDA submitted) vasodilating beta-blocker, demonstrated a neutral effect on blood glucose levels in two 12-week clinical studies of patients with hypertension, said George Bakris, MD, director, Hypertension Center, University of Chicago Medical Center, Illinois. The results of these trials were presented at the 67th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

Preservation of glycemic control has been observed with carvedilol. "In the published studies and the studies we've done, nebivolol looks like it has a profile similar to carvedilol," Dr Bakris said. "Carvedilol, however, has been shown to improve insulin resistance, which has not yet been shown with nebivolol."

The trials of nebivolol were randomized, multicenter, placebo-controlled studies that included a total of 1,494 patients with stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension. One study included 825 patients who received nebivolol monotherapy. A second study of nebivolol as add-on therapy included 669 patients.

In the monotherapy study, patients randomized to nebivolol had a dosage-dependent increase in mean blood glucose levels of 0.8 to 7.2 mg/dL, which was not significantly different from the 7.1-mg/dL increase observed in patients randomized to placebo. The differences from baseline in both groups were nonsignificant.

In the add-on study, patients randomized to nebivolol had a mean increase of 0.7 mg/dL (20 mg/d) to 1.9 mg/dL (5 mg/d) in blood glucose levels compared with patients randomized to placebo, who experienced a mean increase of 2.6 mg/dL in blood glucose levels.