[LLY] Novo's Prandin to Help Drugmaker Gain Ground in Diabetes Battle
Bloomberg News
September 10, 1998, 6:57 a.m. ET
Novo's Prandin to Help Drugmaker Gain Ground in Diabetes Battle
Barcelona, Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Novo Nordisk A/S's
diabetes drug Prandin can help reduce patients' blood-sugar
levels alone or in combination with other drugs -- and unlike
other treatments, it's effective no matter how many meals
patients eat, new studies show.
Prandin, known as NovoNorm in Europe, showed it could reduce
blood-sugar levels to what doctors consider ''acceptable'' levels
in 83 percent of patients, regardless of whether they skipped
meals or ate four times a day. When patients took Prandin and a
generic drug called metform, 60 percent achieved ''good'' sugar
control, according to studies presented at this week's meeting of
the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.
Novo, the world's largest maker of diabetes treatments, is
counting on Prandin to extend its lead as competitors pile into a
market growing 15 percent a year. Novo and Eli Lilly & Co., the
market's No. 2 and like Novo a maker of the widely used treatment
insulin, must also widen their drug offerings as a new generation
of treatments threatens to reduce diabetics' need for insulin.
''Everyone is hedging their bets,'' by trying to rejuvenate
insulin and developing new pills that can defer the moment when
diabetics, who grow progressively less sensitive to oral
therapies, need to turn to insulin, said James Keeney, an analyst
with ABN Amro.
Diabetes, a chronic disorder characterized by the body's
inability to properly regulate glucose levels, is claiming more
victims as people lead more sedentary lifestyles and eat fattier
diets. Patients take the hormone insulin to help them process
glucose.
Room for Growth
''The market is poised for growth,'' said Keeney.
Indeed, the worldwide market for treatments of the most
common form of diabetes, estimated at $2.5 billion, will almost
triple in size by 2004 to an estimated $7 billion, according to
analysts at Societe Generale.
So far, analysts say Novo appears to be a step ahead of
Lilly because Prandin -- or NovoNorm -- is already sold in the
U.S. and received clearance for sales in the European Union last
month. It will be introduced in several European countries before
year-end, and analysts estimate it could soon generate annual
worldwide sales of $300 million to $400 million.
Investors appear to think the company's prospects are good,
too. Novo shares have risen 12 percent over the past month,
making the company one of the top 10 performers in the European-
wide Bloomberg 500 index of stocks.
The drug, known chemically as repaglinide, works by
stimulating the pancreas to produce insulin. It's designed to be
taken with meals so that it can keep glucose levels stable at
times when they vary the most.
The fast action may mean there is less chance of patients
having hypoglycemia, a condition of low blood sugar that can
occur when insulin-stimulating drugs push the body too far the
wrong way.
Rival Drug
Lilly's competing drug, pioglitazone, is still in the late
stages of clinical trials. If it reaches the market, though, it
could be an important addition to the anti-diabetes arsenal,
analysts say.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker is working with Japan's
Takeda Chemical Industries on a product that may rival Warner-
Lambert Co.'s Rezulin, one of the fastest-growing diabetes drugs
in the U.S.
Early data suggests the Lilly drug could be as effective as
Rezulin without its liver-damaging side-effects, said Leonard
Yaffe, an analyst with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities.
In the meantime, Lilly is also moving on several fronts by
trying to give insulin a lift. The U.S. drugmaker, which
introduced the world's first insulin in 1922, will next year
bring in a new form of insulin that studies show is more
effective than existing treatments. It's also developed two new
insulin injection systems that could lure patients to its
products because they're easier to use than the competition's.
European studies of Lilly's new insulin, called HumalogMix
25, show it can reduce the peak level of glucose, or blood sugar,
that occurs in diabetics after meals by a third more than
existing treatments. Researchers in Barcelona also said the new
product is also easier to use because it can be injected shortly
before or after meals.
The new compound, to be introduced in Europe next year and
in the U.S. in 2000, will compete with Novo's Novolin and Lilly's
own Humulin. Novo controls 50 percent of the world's insulin
market, compared with Lilly's 45 percent.
Unlike insulin, the so-called oral treatments developed by
Novo, Lilly and others aim to treat Type II diabetes, the most
common form of the disorder, which typically develops later in
life as the pancreas does not produce an adequate supply of
insulin and muscle tissue becomes insensitive to the hormone.
Insulin is the chemical messenger the body normally makes to
regulate how glucose, or blood sugar, gets to cells. In the more
severe form of the disease, known as Type 1, the pancreas doesn't
produce insulin.
--Marthe Fourcade in Barcelona through the London newsroom (44
quote.bloomberg.com |
