The FINANCIAL — Osaka, Japan June 6 2011 – Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited announced today that it launched SONIAS®, a fixed dose combination tablet of ACTOS® and sulfonylurea for treatment of type 2 diabetes in Japan.
SONIAS is a tablet taken orally once daily and has two dosage strengths, “SONIAS LD” and “SONIAS HD” which contain 15mg pioglitazone/1mg glimepiride, and 30mg pioglitazone/3mg glimepiride respectively.
ACTOS, which was discovered by Takeda, is in the thiazolidinedione (TZD) class of oral antidiabetic medications and targets insulin resistance, which is a characteristic symptom associated with type 2 diabetes. Sulfonylurea primarily acts on beta cells of the pancreas and increasing the amount of insulin secretion by the pancreas. It is expected that by combining these two medications which have differing mechanisms of action, patients will be able to avoid missing a dose due to the greater ease of administration, thereby allowing patients with type 2 diabetes to better control their blood glucose levels.
“Adding SONIAS to our broad line-up of treatment for type2 diabetes will allow us to offer more appropriate treatment options to each patient,” said Yasuhiko Yamanaka, Director and Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Marketing Division. “SONIAS is a fixed dose combination tablet of ACTOS and sulfonylurea, which has been most commonly prescribed as a co-administrative regime in Japan for treatment of type 2 diabetes so that it is expected to contribute to the treatment of many patients with type 2 diabetes.”
Predicted FY2011 sale of ACTOS including SONIAS is ¥44 billion and has been included in the projected consolidated results for FY2011, which was disclosed on May 15, 2011.
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