Lilly reports superiority of exenatide over Lantus

Lilly has announced positive results from a trial comparing subjects who were randomised to either receive exenatide once weekly or Lantus (insulin glargine).

It was found that participants who took exenatide once weekly experienced a statistically superior reduction in A1C when compared to those who were given Lantus.

A1C is a measure of average blood sugar over a period of three months.

Exenatide once weekly patients saw a drop of 1.5 percentage points from A1C baseline levels, compared to 1.3 percentage points for Lantus participants over the same period of time.

Lilly carried out the study with Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Alkermes.

“Exenatide once weekly outperformed Lantus in this superiority study by meeting its primary endpoint,” said Dr Orville Kolterman, senior vice-president of research and development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

In recent days, Lilly and Daiichi Sankyo announced that they had received Food and Drug Administration approval for the thrombotic cardiovascular events therapy Effient.