This is indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise as a once-daily combination therapy to improve glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes who are already treated with a combination of Pioglitazone and a sulfonylurea or whose diabetes is not adequately controlled with a sulfonylurea alone, or for those patients who have initially responded to Pioglitazone alone and require additional glycemic control.
Combination Oral hypoglycemic preparations
Selecting the starting dose of Glimepiride & Pioglitazone should be based on the patient's current regimen of Pioglitazone and/or sulfonylurea. Those patients who may be more sensitive to antihyperglycemic drugs should be monitored carefully during dose adjustment. It is recommended that a single dose of Pioglitazone & Glimepiride be administered once daily with the first main meal. Starting dose for patients currently on Glimepiride monotherapy: Based on the usual starting dose of Pioglitazone (15 mg or 30 mg daily), Pioglitazone & Glimepiride may be initiated at 30 mg/2 mg or 30 mg/4 mg tablet strengths once daily, and adjusted after assessing adequacy of therapeutic response. Starting dose for patients currently on Pioglitazone monotherapy: Based on the usual starting doses of Glimepiride (1 mg or 2 mg once daily), and Pioglitazone 15 mg or 30 mg, Pioglitazone & Glimepiride may be initiated at 30 mg/2 mg once daily, and adjusted after assessing adequacy of therapeutic response. Starting dose for patients switching from combination therapy of Pioglitazone plus Glimepiride as separate tablets: Pioglitazone & Glimepiride may be initiated with 30 mg/2 mg or 30 mg/4 mg tablet strengths based on the dose of Pioglitazone and Glimepiride already being taken. Patients who are not controlled with 15 mg of Pioglitazone in combination with Glimepiride should be carefully monitored when switched to Pioglitazone & Glimepiride. Starting dose for patients currently on a different sulfonylurea monotherapy or switching from combination therapy of Pioglitazone plus a different sulfonylurea: No exact dosage relationship exists between Glimepiride and the other sulfonylurea agents. Therefore, based on the maximum starting dose of 2 mg Glimepiride, Pioglitazone & Glimepiride should be limited initially to a starting dose of 30 mg/2 mg once daily, and adjusted after assessing adequacy of therapeutic
Combination of Pioglitazone and Glimepiride is contraindicated in patients with: Known hypersensitivity to Pioglitazone or Glimepiride or any of the components of combination of Pioglitazone or Glimepiride. Diabetic ketoacidosis, with or without coma. This condition should be treated with insulin.
Pioglitazone: The most common adverse experiences with Pioglitazone monotherapy (≥5%) were upper respiratory tract infection, injury, and headache. Overall, the types of adverse experiences reported when Pioglitazone was used in combination with a sulfonylurea were similar to those during monotherapy with Pioglitazone. Other adverse events reported in at least 5% of patients in controlled clinical studies between placebo and Pioglitazone monotherapy included myalgia (2.7% and 5.4%), tooth disorder (2.3% and 5.3%), diabetes mellitus aggravated (8.1% and 5.1%) and pharyngitis (0.8% and 5.1%), respectively. In monotherapy studies, edema was reported for 4.8% (with doses from 7.5 mg to 45 mg) of patients treated with Pioglitazone versus 1.2% of placebo treated patients. Glimepiride: Hypoglycemia: The incidence of hypoglycemia with Glimepiride is documented. In patients treated with Glimepiride, adverse events, other than hypoglycemia, considered to be possibly or probably related to study drug that occurred in more than 1% of patients included dizziness (1.7%), asthenia (1.6%), headache (1.5%), and nausea (1.1%). Dermatologic Reactions: Allergic skin reactions, e.g., pruritus, erythema, urticaria, and morbilliform or maculopapular eruptions, occur in less than 1% of treated patients. These may be transient and may disappear despite continued use of Glimepiride.
Pregnancy category C. Because current information strongly suggests that abnormal blood glucose levels during pregnancy are associated with a higher incidence of congenital anomalies as well as increased neonatal morbidity and mortality, most experts recommend that insulin monotherapy be used during pregnancy to maintain blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible. Combination of Pioglitazone and Glimepiride should not be used during pregnancy. Nursing mothers: No studies have been conducted with combination of Pioglitazone and Glimepiride. It is not known whether Pioglitazone and/or Glimepiride are excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, combination of Pioglitazone and Glimepiride should not be administered to a nursing woman.
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