Pancreatitis Associated With Incretin-Based Therapies

In recent years, incretin-based therapies such as glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists (GLP-1) and dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inhibitors (DPP-IV) have become important therapeutic options for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Although these agents are considered safe, long-term safety outcome studies are lacking. Theoretically, the combination of these two classes of agents could increase efficacy, but there is no strong supporting clinical evidence. While both GLP-1 and DPP-IV agents are approved for use as monotherapy and with other diabetes drugs, the combined use of these drugs classes has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).In a recent case report, Patel et al. (1) noted an improvement in glycemic control in a patient with type 2 diabetes on a combination of …