Hua Medicine of Shanghai announced positive results from a China Phase II trial of a treatment for type 2 diabetes. HMS5552 is a fourth generation glucokinase activator (GKA). Hua pointed out that the trial was the first time a GKA drug was successful as a monotherapy. Also, the fourth generation drug uses a novel scaffold to avoid hypoglycemic episodes, which plagued earlier versions of GKA treatments, and does not appear to lose efficacy as occurred with other class members. Hua hopes to start a China Phase III trial of HMS6662 in early 2017.
