New study spot­lights a link be­tween block­buster SGLT2 drugs and po­ten­tial­ly lethal gan­grene

A new study in the An­nals of In­ter­nal Med­i­cine high­lights an ap­par­ent con­nec­tion be­tween the new wave of SGLT2 di­a­betes drugs and ex­treme­ly rare cas­es of flesh-eat­ing bac­te­ria called Fournier gan­grene that at­tacks the gen­i­tal and rec­tal ar­eas of pa­tients.

Re­searchers tracked 55 cas­es of necro­tiz­ing fasci­itis over 6 years lead­ing up to Jan­u­ary 31, 2019. All of these in­ci­dents were flagged by the FDA’s Ad­verse Event Re­port­ing Sys­tem. Thir­ty-nine of the vic­tims were men, the rest women. Sev­er­al of the pa­tients re­quired surgery while three died and two oth­ers re­quired am­pu­ta­tions to stop the at­tack.

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