BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Differentiating the DPP-4 Space

June 15, 2009 7:00 AM UTC

By the time linagliptin from Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH reaches the market for Type II diabetes, competing DPP-4 inhibitor Januvia sitagliptin will have at least a four-year head start. But Boehringer Ingelheim thinks it will be able to compete based on ease of use in a subgroup of diabetic patients with renal insufficiency.

Data presented last week at the American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans appear to put linagliptin in the same ballpark as Januvia and other late-stage dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors in terms of HbA1c reduction. Linagliptin plus metformin met the primary endpoint of reduction in HbA1c from baseline vs. metformin plus placebo at 12 weeks in an international Phase II trial in 268 patients who were inadequately controlled on metformin...