ADA Preview
A week from today the diabetes world will gather for the annual Scientific Sessions in San Francisco. This year’s conference promises to be one of the more newsworthy with three major trials announcing results and several companies revealing more data on promising drugs under development. With so much going on this year Diabetic Investor thought a preview might help you decide which events are worthy of your attendance. (Note all times listed are Pacific Standard Time.)
Friday June 6th 2pm – 4pm – Advance Trial Study Results
Sunday June 8th 4:15pm – 6:15pm – Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Outcomes- The VA Trials
Tuesday June 10th 7:30am – 9:30am – ACCORD Trial – Study Results
It isn’t often that we have three major trials announcing results in the span of just five days. Like everyone else Diabetic Investor is anxious to see the results but probably not for the same reasons as everyone else. From our perspective the results biggest impact will be felt all the way back in Washington D.C. at the offices of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As we all know this agency has come under intense scrutiny and is currently reviewing what standards they will use to approve diabetes drugs. Already the agency has published their draft guidelines which appear to indicate the agencies willingness to consider standards beyond glycemic control. How they agency proceeds has broad implications for the many compounds under development.
Sunday June 8th 5pm-7pm Novo Nordisk Investor Presentation
Sunday June 8th 7pm-10pm Amylin Investor Presentation
Monday June 9th 6:30pm-8pm Roche Investor Presentation
With the success of Byetta from Amylin we no longer hear concerns over GLP-1 therapy, in fact quite the opposite is occurring. As Diabetic Investor accurately predicted GLP-1 therapy has gained acceptance and is now being seen as one of the more promising therapy regimens. With Novo recently filing their GLP-1 Liraglutide with the FDA and Amylin getting ready to submit the long-acting once-a-week version of Byetta to the FDA, the two presentation Sunday should offer a glimpse into the future of the GLP-1 market. The big question Novo has to answer is why will physicians prescribe Liraglutide over Byetta when it appears Byetta is more effective at helping patients lose weight.
Amylin, on the other hand, is all about the LAR filing.
The wild card here is Roche and their GLP-1 R1583. During their presentation the company will release data from completed phase IIb trials. There is a great deal of interest in this compound, many respected researchers have told Diabetic Investor that R1583 is the most exciting GLP-1 they have seen in some time.
Last but not least Vivus will have their investor presentation Tuesday June 10th at 11:30am. Last Thursday, the company released an abstract they will present at the conference for their obesity drug Qnexa. According to the abstract Qnexa led to a reduction in patients’ blood glucose levels of 1.1 percent, compared with 0.6 percent in placebo patients. In addition, Qnexa-treated patients had a mean reduction in weight of 6.2 percent compared with 1.2 percent in placebo.
Diabetic Investor does not anticipate any major news coming out of the medical device sector, with the one possible exception that Dexcom could announce who they plan on partnering with for their hospital based system. As previously reported by Diabetic Investor we expect Edward LifeSciences to have the inside track here.
It’s also likely we’ll hear lots of talk about who’s insulin pen is easier to use. Now that Lilly has found religion and has embraced the concept of pen delivery systems and Sanofi-Aventis also having new pens, look for lots of boring discussion on which pen patients prefer. To Diabetic Investor all this discussion is much to do about nothing as all pens are fairly easy to use and truth be told Novo has the best insulin pens around, not to mention the most IP.
Surly there will other news and, as always, Diabetic Investor will be there to cover it all. Although with the many events this year it looks like we’ll need to bring our running shoes.
David Kliff
Publisher
Diabetic Investor
www.diabeticinvestor.com
www.davesrunfordiabetes.blogspot.com
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