When deciding whether to approve a drug, the FDA only cares whether it's safe and effective. But once the drug hits the market, a third characteristic -- how the drug is taken -- helps determine whether it obtains blockbuster status.
Most type 2 diabetes patients have started out on oral medications like Bristol-Myers Squibb's
Then there's Amylin Pharmaceuticals'
If one injection a day is better than two, then one injection per week should be seven times better. That's what Amylin and marketing partner Eli Lilly
Novo Nordisk isn't waiting idly by to be outdone by once-weekly Byetta, though. The diabetes expert announced yesterday that it's taking drug delivery full circle by attempting to make an oral version of GLP-1-like drugs. It won't be easy; if it were, Amylin, Novo Nordisk, and others would have started there in the first place. But Novo Nordisk thinks it can use Emisphere Technologies'
Hold on to your seat, Fools. The GLP-1 drug wars are going to deliver one bumpy ride.