Unfortunately, that decreased loss was almost entirely due to
cutting costs. Sales were essentially flat year over year, as the
company has had trouble boosting sales of its diabetes drug, Byetta,
because it was linked to pancreatitis. In fact, prescriptions for Byetta were actually down from the previous quarter.
In order to get sales growing again, Amylin is combining its sales force with marketing partner Eli Lilly
(NYSE: LLY). The increased focus may help a little, but Amylin is going
to have a hard time growing sales by leaps and bounds until it gets the
once-weekly version of Byetta approved.
With or without the pancreatitis issue, the currently available drug
is unlikely to be a major seller because it has to be injected twice
daily. With plenty of oral drugs available to diabetics, it's more
reasonable to ask patients to inject themselves once a week with the
new product, which was designed using Alkermes ' (Nasdaq: ALKS) extended-release technology. The once-weekly formula also beat up on two oral drugs, Merck
's (NYSE: MRK) Januvia and Takeda's Actos, in a head-to-head clinical
trial, which should help with sales. If it can do the same with sanofi-aventis
' (NYSE: SNY) Lantus in an ongoing trial, the once-weekly drug should
sell extremely well at both ends of the diabetes progression.
Amylin is basically sitting in limbo for the next year or so until
it hears back from the FDA. The only thing it can do now is try and get
as many people onto Byetta as it can. The early adoption from those
patients when the once-weekly product is available should drive
additional patients to the once-weekly product.
Get your blood sugar stable with this sweet Foolishness, using Splenda:
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© 2009 UCLICK, L.L.C.
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