The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said it will cover Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen-Cilag’s diabetes drug Invokana (canagliflozin) as a treatment for people with type 2 diabetes.

The decision, which will allow the drug to be reimbursed in the UK, recommends use of the drug in a variety of conditions, including alongside metformin when the patient can’t take a sulfonylurea or would be at significant risk of hypoglycaemia.

Carole Longson, director of NICE’s center for health technology evaluation, says the recommendation for canagliflozin adds another clinically and cost-effective option to the armory of drugs to control type 2 diabetes.

The drug becomes the tenth diabetes treatment recommended by NICE. Others are metformin, sulfonylurea, sitagliptin, vildagliptin, pioglitazone, dapagliflozin, liraglutide, exenatide, rapid-acting insulin secretagogues and insulin to help lower blood sugar levels for type 2 diabetes.

Invokana, which is from a class of drugs called sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors, received FDA approval last year. Janssen officials called the UK approval an important milestone for the drug, which was approved in Europe last year. — Jonathon Shacat

Originally appeared in Drug Industry Daily, the pharmaceutical industry’s number one source for regulatory news and information. Click here for more information.