Findings from a retrospective case–control study suggest that the DPP-4 inhibitor sitagliptin may improve outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes who are hospitalized with COVID-19.

Continuation of sitagliptin during initiation of insulin glargine therapy results in a greater reduction in glycated hemoglobin, without increased hypoglycemia, than discontinuation in patients with type 2 diabetes, study data show.

Patients with type 2 diabetes who are uptitrating to a maximum metformin dose benefit from improved glycemic control when they simultaneously initiate sitagliptin, randomized trial findings suggest.

By contrast, there was no significant change in the sitagliptin group.

This was recorded in 10.6% of patients treated with sitagliptin, 12.4% treated with glimepiride, 12.0% with liraglutide, and 11.9% with insulin glargine.

The prespecified secondary analysis involved 457 participants in the TriMaster trial  who tried all three study medications (pioglitazone, sitagliptin, and canagliflozin) for 16 weeks each and ranked them in order of preference.

Bodyweight decreased with both exenatide and sitagliptin, at an average of 1.12 and 1.19 kg, respectively, and increased by 0.15 kg in the placebo group.

They took semaglutide, sitagliptin, or matching placebos for 26 weeks.

Other industry-sponsored phase 3 trials Liraglutide versus a DPP-4 inhibitor: Published Trial population: People with type 2 diabetes taking metformin Comparator treatment: Sitagliptin NCT00700817 This trial, published in The Lancet , compared liraglutide against sitagliptin, the first DPP-4 (dipeptidyl peptidase-4) inhibitor to be approved.

The findings have not been published in a journal but the results posted on clinicaltrials.gov  indicate that lixisenatide was not statistically superior to sitagliptin for the primary endpoint at week 24.