Would you rather take one pill per day or give yourself two shots a day?
Yeah, this needle-phobic Fool would pick the pill, too.
Amylin Pharmaceuticals
The companies ran a head-to-head trial in which Byetta was shown to lower post-meal glucose levels more than Januvia. Patients on Byetta also ate less, which could cause them to lose weight -- a known, and usually welcomed, side effect of Byetta.
While head-to-head trials are usually the definitive answer on which drug is the best, this trial probably isn't going to change the prescribing habits of doctors all that much because Amylin and Eli Lilly appear to have set it up in a way to ensure Byetta's success. Because Byetta is taken before a meal, it's not surprising that it helped lower post-meal glucose levels. (In fact, the drug shouldn't be taken after a meal because of a risk of low blood sugar levels.) A better test would have been to measure hemoglobin A1c levels, which track the average long-term -- two- to three-month -- level of glucose in the bloodstream.
That's what Novo Nordisk
While the only people likely to be swayed by this trial are doctors and patients who just read headlines, it probably doesn't matter much for Amylin and Eli Lilly. The companies are working in combination with Alkermes
More Foolishness:
- Amylin has some bigger problems to deal with.
- Bristol-Myers and AstraZeneca's drug candidate looks good.
- Make $67,000 investing in drug stocks. Really!
