BioCentury
ARTICLE | Product Development

Really insufficient

A poster child for head-to-head trials: Lilly's Solpura vs. pig enzymes

January 24, 2011 8:00 AM UTC

Solpura liprotamase for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency could be the poster child for why it's a good idea to run head-to-head clinical trials. If those had been done early on, the product might now be on the market - or not. Either way, it would be hard to argue that three companies and their shareholders wouldn't have saved time and money. And it would be equally hard to argue patients wouldn't be better off knowing they have access to the best product.

Instead, no one really knows exactly how the recombinant-based Solpura stacks up against the marketed porcine-derived pancreatic enzyme products (PEPs). Nor is it clear, given the limited amount of data available, how good PEPs really are...