Physicians favor agents that can reduce HbA1c levels by 2% in diabetes patients

Dec 18 2009

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that over 70 percent of surveyed U.S. physicians indicate there is a high need for diabetes drugs with novel mechanisms of action versus 15 percent who say there is a high need for additional DPP-IV inhibitors. Both surveyed physicians and patients favor agents with excellent glucose lowering ability and physicians in particular say the most influential attribute would be if an agent could reduce HbA1c levels by two percent.

"Physicians we surveyed also tell us that they prefer an agent with an excellent safety profile, which is not surprising given the cardiovascular safety concerns associated with GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia and the more recent pancreatitis association with both Amylin/Eli Lilly's Byetta and Merck's Januvia," stated Nicole Westphal, Ph.D., analyst and product manager at Decision Resources. "For surveyed type 2 diabetes patients, an emerging therapy with disease modifying potential (one that improves the function of insulin producing cells) is also highly desirable."

The new report entitled Brand Perceptions in Noninsulin Antidiabetics also identifies segments of physicians and type 2 diabetes patients that each uses a different mix of criteria to make treatment decisions. The physician segment comprised of young, urban, weight-conscious specialists favor Byetta and will likely drive adoption of new GLP-1 analogues such as, Novo Nordisk/Scios's Victoza and Alkermes/Amylin/Eli Lilly's Byetta LAR. Given this segment's reliance on clinical evidence to drive decisions, this physician segment is an ideal target for companies developing novel drugs.

"The majority of surveyed physicians predict that out of these two agents, Byetta LAR will have the most significant impact on type 2 diabetes treatment, likely because of their familiarity with and comfort prescribing Byetta (Byetta LAR has the same active molecule as Byetta) and their opinion that Byetta LAR (once-weekly injection) offers substantial dosing advantage over Victoza (once-daily injection)," added Dr. Westphal.

The report contains primary research based on a survey of 148 U.S. physicians and 336 U.S. patients. Key brands included in the primary research consist of Byetta; Takeda's Actos, ACTOplus met and Duetact; GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia, Avandamet and Avandaryl; Merck's Januvia and Janumet; and Bristol-Myers Squibb/AstraZeneca/Otsuka's Onglyza.