It has been recently discovered that the popular type-2 diabetes prescription drug, Onglyza, may be among the heart failure causes in patients.

What is Onglyza?

Onglyza is a drug manufactured by AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb that is prescribed to treat patients with type-2 diabetes. Type-2 diabetes affects millions of Americans. The CDC reports that nearly 30 million Americans suffer from type-2 diabetes, and 25 percent of them may not be aware they have the disease.

Additionally, there are about 90 million more adults who have some form of prediabetes — a precursor to the disease.

Drugs like Onglyza and Kombiglyze treat type-2 diabetes. Their active ingredient, saxagliptin, works to help the body produce the right amount of insulin. Onglyza helps control blood sugar by reducing the amount of glucagon that the pancreas produces. This stops the liver from making too much glucose. It also helps the body produce more insulin.

Onglyza was approved in 2009 (Kombiglyze in 2010) and by 2015, Onglyza was bringing in $786 billion in sales. It has been estimated that yearly sales could reach $2.5 billion in coming years.

But even as popular and successful as these drugs have been, they have been listed as heart failure causes in some patients.

Onglyza, Kombiglyze Among Heart Failure Causes

Onlgyza and Kombiglyze, although widely used, have been connected with some severe side effects including heart failure and heart-related incidents.

The drug manufacturers, Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca funded a recent study regarding saxagliptin, the active ingredient in Onglyza and Kombiglyze. They found that users of saxagliptin were hospitalized at a higher rate for heart related issues than other patients. Essentially, the study found that Onglyza and Kombiglyze may be among heart failure causes in patients.

This study, called the SAVOR study, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2013.  The researchers in this study looked at over 16,000 type-2 diabetes patients. They found that those patients who took Onglyza were hospitalized more for heart failure than those type-2 diabetes patients who took other drugs.

When the heart muscle is too weak to pump blood in the body, heart failure results. There are other heart failure causes besides drugs like Onglyza, such as coronary artery disease or high blood pressure. Those patients who have risks for heart failure may also have to change their diet and begin exercising, lose weight, and manage their stress.

The study results are clear that the amount of increase in hospitalizations for heart failure due to Onglyza, while not very high, are an important factor for doctors and patients to consider for treatment of type-2 diabetes.

By 2015, the drug makers were urged to put a warning on the Onlgyza box counting it among possible heart failure causes. However, those who took the drug prior, may not have been properly warned about its link to heart failure.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and took Onglyza or Kombiglyze, then suffered from heart failure, you may benefit from speaking with an experienced attorney.

While legal compensation cannot take away the pain and suffering associated with heart failure, monetary compensation can help with medical costs and lost wages.