Qtern Use In Pregnancy & Lactation

Effects on fertility: No studies on the effect on fertility have been conducted with saxagliptin and dapagliflozin in combination
Saxagliptin: In a rat fertility study, males were treated with oral gavage doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg/day for two weeks prior to mating, during mating, and up to scheduled termination (approximately four weeks total) and females were treated with oral gavage doses of 125, 300, and 750 mg/kg/day for two weeks prior to mating through gestation day 7. No adverse effects on fertility were observed at 200 mg/kg/day (males) or 125 mg/kg/day (females) resulting in respective exposures (AUC) of approximately 670 (males) and 865 (females) times human exposure at the recommended clinical dose. At higher, maternally toxic doses (300 and 750 mg/kg/day), increased foetal resorptions were observed (approximately 2300 and 6810 times the recommended clinical dose). Additional effects on oestrous cycling, fertility, ovulation, and implantation were observed at 750 mg/kg/day (approximately 6810 times the recommended clinical dose).
Dapagliflozin: In a study of fertility in rats, no effects on mating, fertility, or early embryonic development were seen when males received oral doses up to 210 mg/kg/day or when females received oral doses up to 75 mg/kg/day (yielding plasma AUC values at least 1000 times the clinical exposure at the maximum recommended human dose [MRHD] of 10 mg/day). However, at 210 mg/kg/day, a dose associated with profound toxicity (including mortality), seminal vesicle and epididymal weights were reduced; sperm motility and sperm counts were reduced; and there were increased numbers of morphologically abnormal sperm. No adverse effects on sperm or male reproductive organs were seen at 75 mg/kg/day (700 times the clinical exposure at the MRHD).
Use in pregnancy - Category D: Saxagliptin/dapagliflozin combination: There are no adequate and well-controlled studies of QTERN or its mono-components in pregnant women. Animal studies with the individual active components have identified adverse effects on embryofoetal development, most particularly with regard to dapagliflozin on the kidney. No animal developmental studies with saxagliptin and dapagliflozin in combination have been conducted. QTERN should not be used during pregnancy. If pregnancy is detected, treatment with QTERN should be discontinued.
Saxagliptin: Saxagliptin was not teratogenic at any dose evaluated in rats or rabbits. At high doses in rats, saxagliptin caused a minor developmental delay in ossification of the foetal pelvis at ≥240 mg/kg/day (≥1670 times the human exposure [AUC] at the recommended clinical dose). Maternal toxicity and reduced foetal body weights were observed at 900 mg/kg/day (>8860 times the recommended clinical dose). In rabbits, the effects of saxagliptin were limited to minor skeletal variations observed only at maternally toxic doses (200 mg/kg/day, exposures 1520 times the recommended clinical dose).
Saxagliptin administered to female rats from gestation day 6 to lactation day 20 resulted in decreased body weights in male and female offspring only at maternally toxic doses (≥250 mg/kg/day, exposures ≥1810 times the recommended clinical dose). No functional or behavioural toxicity was observed in the offspring of rats administered saxagliptin at any dose.
Saxagliptin and/or its metabolites cross the placenta into the foetus following dosing in pregnant rats.
Dapagliflozin: There are no data from the use of dapagliflozin in pregnant women. Studies in rats have shown toxicity to the developing kidney in the time period corresponding to the second and third trimesters of human pregnancy (see Precautions). Therefore, dapagliflozin must not be used during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. When pregnancy is detected, treatment with dapagliflozin should be discontinued.
In conventional studies of embryofoetal development in rats and rabbits, dapagliflozin was administered for intervals coinciding with the period of organogenesis in humans. An increased incidence of embryofoetal lethality, decreased foetal weight and an increased incidence of foetal visceral and skeletal anomalies were seen in rats at maternotoxic doses (oral doses greater than or equal to 150 mg/kg/day). The no observed effect level for embryofoetal effects in rats was an oral dose of 75 mg/kg/day (1530 times the exposure in patients at the maximum recommended human dose [MRHD]). No developmental toxicities were observed in rabbits at oral doses up to 180 mg/kg/day (1265 times the exposure in patients at the MRHD).
Use in lactation: Saxagliptin/dapagliflozin combination: It is not known whether QTERN or its mono-components and/or their metabolites are excreted in human milk. QTERN must not be used by a breastfeeding woman.
Saxagliptin: Saxagliptin and/or its metabolites are secreted in the milk of lactating rats.
Dapagliflozin: Studies in rats have shown excretion of dapagliflozin in milk. Direct and indirect exposure of dapagliflozin to weanling juvenile rats and during late pregnancy are each associated with increased incidence and/or severity of renal pelvic and tubular dilatations in progeny, although the long-term functional consequences of these effects are unknown. These periods of exposure coincide with a critical window of renal maturation in rats. As functional maturation of the kidneys in humans continues in the first 2 years of life, dapagliflozin-associated dilated renal pelvis and tubules noted in juvenile rats could constitute potential risk for human renal maturation during the first 2 years of life. Additionally, the negative effects on body-weight gain associated with lactational exposure in weanling juvenile rats suggest that dapagliflozin must be avoided during the first 2 years of life.