Diabetes is a word we’re all familiar with, but many people don’t know the list of afflictions associated with the disease, which include blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputations and nerve damage. Approximately 221 million people around the world have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

AtheroGenics Inc. (Nasdaq: AGIX) is a pharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases, including diabetes and coronary heart disease. The company today announced top-line results from its ANDES phase 3 clinical trial of AGI-1067, the company’s lead antioxidant and anti-inflammatory drug candidate for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

According to the trial study, AGI-1067 met the primary efficacy endpoint for the reduction in glycosylated hemoglobin in both 75mg and 150mg doses. Russell M. Medford, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of AtheroGenics said the company is pleased with the results, which will allow the company to progress with AGI-1067’s development.

“We believe that AGI-1067, through its unique mechanism of action, could become the first diabetes treatment with demonstrated cardiovascular safety, and with the potential to reduce cardiovascular hard events including cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke, as reported from the 6,144 patient phase 3 ARISE trial, which concluded in 2007,” Medford stated in the press release.

The company also announced it has developed a patient identification tool that will allow medical personnel to screen for the small number of patients who may run the risk of hepatic effects that have been observed during treatment with AGI-1067. According to the press release, the tool has performed well at identifying at-risk diabetes patients across all doses used in the ARISE and ANDES trials.

“We are excited about the advances we have made to date with the patient identification tool for AGI-1067,” Alexander Fleming, M.D., acting chief medical officer stated. “We plan to incorporate this tool into the next AGI-1067 phase 3 trial.”

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