Eli Lilly terminates AIR Insulin programmes

Eli Lilly has announced that it has ended its development of its AIR Insulin programme which it had been conducting together with Alkermes.

The firm reports that the reasons for this termination are the increasing uncertainty of the regulatory environment and its evaluation of the clinical and commercial potential of the drug compared to other drugs that are already available.

It said that the decision to end the development of the inhaled insulin programme which was in phase III of clinical development as a potential treatment for both type one and two diabetes was not a result of the the any observations during the safety trials of the product.

John Lechleiter, president and chief operating officer of Eli Lilly, said: “This decision, though difficult, is the right one to make at this time.

“Over the past several months we have conducted a thorough review of all aspects of our efforts to develop our AIR Insulin product and have now made the decision that it would be inappropriate for the company to continue development activities in connection with this project.”

He added that it would not be consistent with the company’s medical principles to continue clinical trials of the product without the prospect of a new drug application, while it reassured patients taking the drug that they should have no safety concerns about using the drug during a transition to other medication.

In June 2006, Eli Lilly noted that their may be a link between type two diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.