Dr. Ralph DeFronzo at the University of Texas Health Center - San Antonio was the lead author and researcher on the study. During the clinical trial, they enrolled over 600 individuals who had been diagnosed with prediabetes and assigned them to receive either a placebo or Actos. Following them over the course of several years, 7.6% of individuals on placebo developed to full blown diabetes each year, whereas only 2.1% of individuals on Actos developed the disease. (You should note that this means over 90% of both groups did NOT progress to diabetes each year.)
This sounds very promising - but more work definitely needs to be done prior to prescribing the drug to the 79 million people in the United States who have prediabetes. Matthew Harper at Forbes points out some of the problems:
"But patients on Actos were significantly more likely to have side effects, including fluid buildup and weight gain. There were a few more heart problems, and three deaths in the Actos group compared to one in the placebo group. That doesn’t mean Actos was costing lives, but it was not saving them."
He also points out that similar results had previously been seen in Avandia. At this point, Avandia's use in diabetes patients has been severely restricted because of the cardiovascular problems it can cause. Additionally, previously research has shown that lifestyle changes can reduce the incidence of diabetes fairly effectively as well.
Takeda, the manufacturer of Actos, was one of the sponsors of this study. No drug has been approved by the FDA previously for the prevention of diabetes - it will be interesting to see what research is done next and whether or not Takeda pursues such an indication. 
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