Metformin (500mg Per Capsule)

Metformin is a biguanide drug for type 2 diabetes, approved in the U.S. in 1995. Researchers also study it for diabetes prevention, liver metabolism through AMPK, and aging.

• Type 2 diabetes and its complications
• Preventing type 2 diabetes in people at high risk
• AMPK signaling and liver fat metabolism
• Aging biology (the proposed TAME trial)

It lowers blood glucose mainly by reducing glucose production in the liver and increasing glucose use. In liver cells it activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which lowers fat synthesis and raises fatty-acid oxidation.

1. Approved drug

   FDA approval (Glucophage, 1995)

   Approved by the FDA on March 3, 1995 (NDA 020357).[1]

2. Human · randomized trial

   UKPDS 34 (Lancet 1998)

   753 overweight adults with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, followed for a median 10.7 years. Against diet-based conventional care, intensive control with metformin cut any diabetes-related endpoint by 32%, diabetes-related death by 42% and all-cause mortality by 36%, with less weight gain and fewer hypoglycaemic attacks than insulin or sulphonylureas. In a supplementary trial, adding metformin early to sulphonylurea was linked to more diabetes-related deaths, which a wider epidemiological analysis did not confirm.[2]

3. Human · randomized trial

   Diabetes Prevention Program (NEJM 2002)

   3,234 adults with raised blood glucose but no diabetes, average follow-up 2.8 years. Metformin reduced new cases of diabetes by 31% versus placebo; an intensive lifestyle program reduced them by 58% and was significantly more effective than metformin.[3]

4. Animal study

   Mechanism: AMPK (J Clin Invest 2001)

   Metformin activated AMPK in rat liver cells, lowering acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity, raising fatty-acid oxidation and suppressing fat-synthesis genes; treated rats showed the same changes in the liver.[4]

5. Review

   Aging research (Cell Metab 2016)

   Proposes the TAME (Targeting Aging with Metformin) trial to test metformin against age-related disease in people. It describes a planned trial; it reports no results.[5]

• The trial results come from the approved medicine taken under medical supervision.
• The aging hypothesis is a proposal; the review cited reports no trial results.
• Products on this site are sold for laboratory research only. They are not the medicines used in the trials above, and those results do not apply to research material.

Is metformin an approved drug?

Yes - as a prescription medicine for type 2 diabetes. Research material sold here is not that medicine.

Did metformin beat lifestyle change in the prevention trial?

No. In the Diabetes Prevention Program both reduced new diabetes, and the lifestyle program was significantly more effective (58% vs 31%).

1. 1.Glucophage (metformin hydrochloride) tablets - original approval March 3, 1995U.S. FDA, Drugs@FDA: NDA 020357 Approved drug
2. 2.Effect of intensive blood-glucose control with metformin on complications in overweight patients with type 2 diabetes (UKPDS 34)UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) Group. Lancet. 1998 Human · randomized trial
3. 3.Reduction in the incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metforminKnowler WC et al. N Engl J Med. 2002 Human · randomized trial
4. 4.Role of AMP-activated protein kinase in mechanism of metformin actionZhou G et al. J Clin Invest. 2001 Animal study
5. 5.Metformin as a Tool to Target AgingBarzilai N et al. Cell Metab. 2016 Review