Biopharmaceutical Company Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Monday that its diabetes drug candidate SRT501 had strong positive results in early-stage clinical trial in treating type-2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to poor exercise and diet, accounts for about 90 percent of the 180 million cases of diabetes around the world, according to latest data of the World Health Organization.

SRT 501, a drug base on resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine seems to significantly lower glucose.

“It was an unexpected surprise. We believe this is the first time a drug candidate targeted to the genes that control the aging process has been shown to be beneficial in human patients in a disease of aging,” said CEO Christoph Westphal.

The study was made on 98 diabetes patients in India who had never received a treatment for the disease or were unresponsive to other diabetes drug treatments. Patients were given different doses of the drug: one third received 2.5-gram dose of the drug, one third received 5-gram dose and one third took a placebo.

Researchers discovered that both doses were safe and well tolerated and levels of the drug remained consistent in the blood over the 28-day period, the company said. Moreover, there were no serious side effects or dose-related side effects. Those taking the placebo did not show an improvement.

This is the first study to show beneficial effect in humans from resveratrol.

“I was unsure if it would work at all. The fact that we saw a signal is fantastic,” said Davis Sinclair, an associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and a co-founder of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sirtris.

Sirtris has already started a larger drug study using SRT501 in combination with metformin, a popular first-line drug against type-2 diabetes, also known as adult-onset diabetes. The study will last three months and will include 130 patients. Its results will be made public later this year, a spokesperson from the company said.

Despite positive early results, SRT501 is at least four years away from market, Westphal said.

The results of the trial were presented at the Annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference on Monday in San Francisco.

Shares of Cambridge, Mass.-based Sirtris jumped $1.41, or 10.7 percent, to $14.60 in aftermarket activity, having earlier closed regular trading at $13.19.