Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Teneligliptin in Elderly Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: Subgroup Analysis of a 3-Year Post-Marketing Surveillance in Japan

Teneligliptin is an oral drug taken once daily to manage blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes. A number of studies of teneligliptin have investigated its safety and efficacy, but these studies included limited numbers of elderly people, aged 75 years or older. Following the approval of teneligliptin in Japan, post-marketing surveillance was started to monitor its safety and efficacy when prescribed by doctors to people in actual clinical practice. We analysed data from the surveillance to check if the safety and efficacy of teneligliptin differ in younger and older people separately. We found that there was no clear difference in the number of adverse drug reactions among three age subgroups: < 65 years, ≥ 65 to < 75 years, or ≥ 75 years, although the incidence of serious adverse drug reactions was higher in elderly patients than in patients aged < 65 years. Treatment with teneligliptin also lowered blood glucose levels in all three age subgroups, and the changes were maintained for up to 3 years in many individuals in each age subgroup. We found no additional safety or efficacy concerns among elderly patients beyond those already described in the package insert. The present results support the use of teneligliptin for the treatment of elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in real-world clinical practice.