BioCentury
ARTICLE | Top Story

G-BA again rebuffs Boehringer's Trajenta

February 22, 2013 2:05 AM UTC

Germany's Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) said in a final benefit assessment that diabetes drug Trajenta linagliptin from Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Ingelheim, Germany) provides no additional benefit over sulfonylurea. Chairman Josef Hecken said G-BA's decision was based on Trajenta's "questionable" non-inferiority to sulfonylurea in controlling blood sugar. G-BA could not be reached and has not yet released the full assessment, which is in line with Germany's Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) December reassessment of Trajenta (see BioCentury Extra, Dec. 3, 2012).

According to Trajenta's label, the xanthine-based dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor provided similar improvements in blood glucose levels vs. glimepiride, a sulfonylurea, with significantly fewer hypoglycemic events and less weight gain in about 1,500 Type II diabetics. The data were published in The Lancet last year. ...