Last Updated: 2003-06-17 10:09:33 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Ben Hirschler, European Pharmaceuticals Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - A global diabetes epidemic has sparked a threefold rise in the number of drugs in development, as companies seek profits from what could become one of the world's most common diseases, new figures on Monday showed.
The World Health Organization predicts diabetes cases will soar from 177 million today to 370 million by 2030 while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes one in three Americans born in 2000 will develop the condition.
The vast majority will suffer from type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes, characterized by obesity and inability to use insulin properly.
In the past, diabetes has seen fewer innovations than other disorders but London-based Pharmaprojects, which tracks drug research worldwide, said the total number of anti-diabetics in active development had surged to 272 today from 93 in 1995.
While more than half these compounds have yet to be tested in people, there has also been a surge in the number reaching clinical testing, with 54 in critical Phase II trials and 12 reaching final Phase III testing.
The hottest area of research is in inhaled insulin treatments, which allow patients to receive insulin to control blood sugar levels without the need for injections.
Nektar Therapeutics announced on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans that its inhaled insulin product, Exubera, effectively reduced sugar levels more than a commonly used therapy from GlaxoSmithKline Plc.
The drug, being developed in conjunction with Pfizer Inc and Aventis SA, was originally expected to be submitted for approval in 2002 but was delayed because of concerns that it might hurt lung function.
If successful, such treatments could expand the market for insulin to several times its current value, analysts believe.
"They could have a very big impact, particularly in the type 2 market. A lot of those patients should move on to insulin but a lot of them don't because they don't like injections," said Iain Clark of Edinburgh-based consultants Wood Mackenzie.
RIVALS CHASING
Nektar, Pfizer and Aventis have rivals on their tail, however.
Another U.S. biotech, Aradigm Corp, is developing an inhaled insulin with Danish pharmaceutical group Novo Nordisk, which is also in Phase III, while a third drug from Alkermes Inc and Eli Lilly & Co is in Phase II.
Other approaches are also yielding encouraging results.
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc and Eli Lilly said at the weekend an experimental drug derived from the venom of a poisonous lizard was shown to reduce patients' blood glucose levels.
The alarming rise in diabetes levels, which doctors link to unhealthy modern diets, may also increase demand for other types of medicines -- notably cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
Pfizer reported new trial data on Monday showing its statin Lipitor significantly reduced strokes and heart attacks in patients with type II diabetes.
The favorable Lipitor data come less than a week after a five-year trial among diabetics showed daily use of another statin, Merck & Co Inc.'s Zocor, cut risk of heart attack and stroke by a third.
Because most of the world's diabetics do not currently take statins, researchers have suggested millions should take them as a third leg of a strategy that already includes treatment for blood sugar levels and high blood pressure.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archiv...617elin026.html
Diabetes epidemic triggers boom in new drug development
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