MannKind may soon be alone in the inhaled insulin arena, as Alkermes and Lilly bow out (I seriously doubt anything will happen with ARDM/NVO):
>>Alkermes Provides Update on Inhaled Insulin Program
Friday March 7, 10:14 am ET
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alkermes, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALKS - News) today issued the following update on AIR® Inhaled Insulin (AIR® Insulin), which is being developed in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly):
Lilly has informed Alkermes that it is evaluating its business case for AIR Insulin and Alkermes expects Lilly to make a decision to discontinue the program in the next week. Alkermes is not aware of any safety, efficacy, or manufacturing issues that have arisen regarding AIR Insulin since Lilly’s last public update on the program.
AIR Insulin is being developed for the treatment of diabetes. Following the successful completion of more than 10 phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, AIR Insulin is currently being evaluated in a broad phase 3 clinical trial program conducted in sites around the world with patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Over the past seven years, Lilly has recruited thousands of diabetes patients to participate in the clinical trials of AIR Insulin and encouraging efficacy and safety results have been seen to date. The extensive phase 3 safety and efficacy program began in 2006 and is scheduled to complete in 2008.
Lilly has the right to terminate its license to AIR Insulin at its discretion and Alkermes expects Lilly to make such a decision based on Lilly’s evaluation of its own business prospects.
While Lilly may elect not to commercialize AIR Insulin, Alkermes believes that the phase 3 safety and efficacy trials should be completed. Data from these studies will provide patients, physicians and the scientific community with long-awaited and important data for the evaluation of new diabetes medications.
Alkermes is seeking to clarify with Lilly the status of the program and will provide further information when available.<<
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Last I looked at MNKD it was 11 bucks. Now it is half that. Clearly the market is going to buy the idea of 2nd generation inhaled insulin being successful until scrips start to prove it.
Cheers, Tuck |
