Diabetes stocks in focus

With the 72nd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association or ADA 2012 ongoing in Philadelphia, pharmaceutical companies involved in this fashionable space are under investor gaze this morning. Novo Nordisk (OMX: NOVO B) is involved in plenty of the talk and comparison studies. Its long-acting insulin analogue Levemir was compared to Amylin Pharmaceuticals’ and Alkermes’ once-weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist Bydureon in a small clinical study initiated by the American companies and they reported that their drug showed greater glucose control, weight loss and lower risk of Hypoglycemia in type 2 diabetes patients. Novo’s representatives view the study as lacking in scientific basis, with the dozing regime of Levemir and other such matters not becoming evident from the data. Earlier Bydureon had been compared to Novo’s Victoza, which is a drug similar to Bydureon and a more direct competitor, and in this study Novo’s drug performed better.

Novo on its behalf reported data comparing its Investigational ultra-long-acting insulin degludec or Tresiba against long-acting basal insulin analogue insulin glargine or Lantus, which is a blockbuster market leader drug from rival Sanofi-Aventis (Euronext: SAN, NYSE: SNY, FWB: SNW) indicated for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes with nearly 4 billion Euros in sales last year. Novo said that Tresiba significantly reduced rates of nocturnal (night-time) hypoglycaemia in type 2 diabetes patients versus insulin glargine while showing equal improvement in glucose control in a 52-week Phase 3a study. Sanofi naturally was less convinced by the data, saying its own readings on Lantus hardly match those shown in Novo’s study. The U.S. FDA recently lengthened the review period for Tresiba for an additional three months.

Sanofi also presented plenty of data (altogether 17 abstracts) on its GLP-1 drug candidate for type 2 Diabetes mellitus called Lyxumia or Lixisenatide, which was in-licensed from another Danish company called Zealand Pharma A/S (CPH: ZEAL). Sanofi also said this morning, that it has submitted an application for the regulatory approval of the drug to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan. The application follows similar action in Europe based on the over 5000 patients treated in GetGoal Phase III clinical trial program. Sanofi and Zealand Pharma also highlighted early-stage animal data from a GLP-1-gastrin dual agonist peptide called ZP3022.