Diabetes drug ‘may lower risk of developing dementia’

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Medication used to treat type 2 diabetes has been linked to a 35 per cent lower risk of dementia, a new study has suggested. Experts said the idea of repurposing existing drugs to treat diseases that cause dementia “is one that has huge potential”, although researchers stressed trials are needed to confirm their findings. “These findings underscore the need for future randomised controlled trials.” Responding to the study Dr Jacqui Hanley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, called for the findings to be confirmed in “robust clinical trials”. “It is encouraging to see large studies exploring whether drugs that have already been licensed could be repurposed as dementia treatments.” “Since these drugs have already been shown to be safe for use in people, this could potentially speed up the process of testing them in clinical trials against dementia, as well as making it significantly cheaper.” Dr Hanley added that the idea of repurposing existing drugs to treat the diseases that cause dementia has huge potential with a third of drugs in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease already used for other conditions.