Doctors and hospitals ordered to forfeit bribes paid by insulin manufacturer Ganli Pharmaceuticals

Doctors and hospitals in Hubei have been ordered to forfeit and repay millions of dollars in bribes they received from insulin maker Beijing Ganli Pharmaceuticals.
The provincial Health Deaprtment and Law Courts have orederd doctors to repay monies paid  by the insulin maker following a police investigation that saw seven executives charged with corruption.
In September, Beijing Ganli, which makes third generation insulins, was embroiled in a major corruption scandal involving bribes to doctors and hospitals exceeding 300 million yuan.
According to 21st Century magazine, the case has been classed as a major economic crime by provincial authorities, and those who received bribes have been ordered to forfeit the money. According to the magazine, the bribes were not confined to Wuhan but included doctors and hospitals in other cities of the province.

Chinese women with PCOS have high rates of hypertension and metabolic abnormalities

by Michael Woodhead

One in five Chinese women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) have hypertension, almost twice the rate of other women, a study from Shandong has found.

Women with PCOS also had abnormal lipid, insulin and glucose levels compared to women without PCOS according to a study conducted by Dr Shi Yuhau and co-researchers at the Reproductive Medicine Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan.

The researchers studies 3396 women with PCOS and 1891 controls They found the prevalence of hypertension to be 19.2% in the women with PCOS, which was much higher than that in the controls (11.9%). After matching for BMI, the hypertensive PCOS group had significantly higher glucose, insulin, and lipid levels than the normotensive PCOS group; these differences were significant.

The researchers said the likelihood of long-term metabolic complications was high in hypertensive PCOS patients.

 “These findings underscore the importance of preventive strategies in women with PCOS in order to prevent hypertension,” they said.

“Cardiac risk factors associated with PCOS have public health implications and should drive early screening and intervention measures. Fasting lipid profiles and glucose examinations should be performed regularly. Treatment of the associated cardiovascular risk factors, including insulin resistance, hypertension and dyslipidaemia, should be incorporated into routine PCOS patient wellness care programmes. These results suggest that it is importance to control weight and blood pressure in women with PCOS in order to reduce their excess risk of future complications. “

Read the full study in: European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology

Adding liraglutide is better than increasing insulin dose in type 2 diabetes

Liraglutide is an injectable glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist that can be taken once daily to improve glycaemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
In a newly published study, researchers from Tianjin Medical University have shown that adding liraglutide to established insulin therapy is better than increasing the insulin dose in Chinese patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes and abdominal obesity.
They conducted a 12-week, randomised, parallel-group study in 84 patients who were randomly assigned to either the liraglutide-added group or the insulin-increasing dose while continuing current insulin based treatment.
 They found that addition of liraglutide to abdominally obese, insulin-treated patients led to improvement in glycemic control similar to that achieved by increasing insulin dosage, but with a lower daily dose of insulin and fewer hypoglycemic events.
Adding liraglutide to insulin also induced a significant reduction in body weight and waist circumference.
"Liraglutide combined with insulin may be the best treatment option for poorly controlled type 2 diabetes and abdominal obesity," they conclude.

Editor's note: The FDA has note potential safety concerns with liraglutide - see this NEJM summary.

Read more: Cardiovascular Diabetology