Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly report positive results for biosimilar diabetes drug

Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly have announced data from secondary analyses of phase III clinical trials highlighting the strong performance of their biosimilar insulin glargine product Abasaglar.

The findings demonstrated that the biosimilar product delivered comparable safety and efficacy outcomes to Sanofi's branded therapy Lantus in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes who received pre-study treatment with Lantus.

Moreover, the results showed no significant differences between the two treatments in key secondary efficacy and safety measures.

Abasaglar was first granted approval by the European Commission in September 2014, marking the first biosimilar insulin approved in the EU. It has since been commercially launched in a number of countries, including the UK.

Dr David Kendall, vice-president for medical affairs at Lilly Diabetes, said: "These data provide important additional evidence for the similarity of Abasaglar to Lantus in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes and provide physicians further information on this new treatment option."

The development of this product came as part of a wider diabetes-focused collaboration between Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly that dates back to 2011.