Newer Diabetes Drugs May Raise Risk of Gallbladder and Bile Duct Disease

Use of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists was associated with increased risk of bile duct and gallbladder disease, according to the results of a recent study.

While it has been suggested that dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and GLP-1 analogues increase the risk of bile duct and gallbladder disease, no observational studies have assessed this relationship.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
New Study Compares Efficacy of Once-Weekly GLP-1RAs
GLP-1–Based Therapy in Older Adults With Diabetes
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For their study, the researchers conducted a population-based cohort study of 71,369 patients initiating an antidiabetic drug from January 1, 2007 to March 31, 2014.

Overall, 853 of the 71,369 participants were hospitalized for bile duct or gallbladder disease. While the use of DPP-4 inhibitors was not associated with increased risk compared with current use of at least 2 oral antidiabetic drugs, the use of GLP-1 analogues was associated with increased risk. GLP-1 analogues were also found to be associated with increased risk of cholecystectomy in a secondary analysis.

“The use of GLP-1 analogues was associated with an increased risk of bile duct and gallbladder disease. Physicians should be aware of this potential adverse event when prescribing these drugs.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Association of bile duct and gallbladder diseases with the use of incretin-based drugs in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus [published online August 1, 2016]. JAMA Intern Med. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1531.