Novo's New Insulin Reduces Risk of Low Blood Sugar, Study Shows
November 29 2016 - 5:00PM
Dow Jones News
Novo Nordisk A/S said its new insulin Tresiba carries about the
same risk of serious heart problems as Sanofi SA's Lantus but
offers significantly lower risk of dangerously low blood sugar in
people with Type-2 diabetes.
Denmark-based Novo Nordisk said its trial of more than 7,500
patients found that those on Tresiba were 27% less likely to suffer
an episode of severe hypoglycemia, a dangerous condition that
occurs when insulin removes too much sugar from the blood, than
those on Lantus.
It added that for episodes of severe hypoglycemia during sleep,
Tresiba reduced the risk by 54% compared with Lantus. Patients on
Tresiba and Lantus were at equal risk of having serious heart
problems such as heart attack and stroke.
A Sanofi spokesman said the company hadn't yet had a chance to
analyze the trial results.
The results could provide a much-needed boost to a drug that has
so far proved a disappointment. It could turn around Novo Nordisk's
frustrated efforts to have Tresiba gain significant market share
from Lantus, an older insulin that dominates the U.S. insulin
market.
When Novo Nordisk launched Tresiba in January, it hoped the
added convenience—unlike older insulins, it doesn't need to be
taken at the same time daily—would justify its high price tag and
help it win favor among doctors.
Instead, the company has been forced to offer
deeper-than-expected discounts to win favorable coverage by the
pharmacy-benefit managers that negotiate drug prices on behalf of
health insurers and employers. Even with that coverage, Tresiba has
struggled to win market share from Lantus. As of September, Tresiba
had a 3% share of the U.S. market for long-acting insulin, compared
with Lantus's 66%, according to health-care data company IMS.
But the result of the trial could help win favor from doctors.
Peter Verdult, an analyst at Citi, previously said any result that
showed a benefit of around 30% could shift prescribing habits in
favor of Tresiba.
Still, any boost from the result of the trial may prove
modest.
Pharmacy-benefit managers are eager to contain the ballooning
cost of diabetes after years of price increases by insulin makers
including Novo Nordisk. What's more, there is rising public anger
about the high cost of insulin.
Those pressures have already forced Novo Nordisk to slash its
long-term growth target, saying that it must lower prices for a
"significantly more challenging" U.S. market.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2016 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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