Merck gets OK for diabetes drug review, shares rise
Regular readers will note my proclivity for diabetes-related stories. Endocrinology was my first scientific “love” and will always be dear to my heart, so bear with me. This is an interesting story, because it shows how competitive intelligence can essentially fail even under intense scrutiny. To my knowledge, the industry generally believed Novartis to be leading Merck by a good six months in its development of a DPP-IV inhibitor, the first of a new class of orally administered drugs aimed at increasing endogenous GLP-1 by inhibiting its metabolism. Surprise!! How did Merck keep their progress with their DPP-IV inhibitor so quiet? What did they do to pull ahead of Novartis in the latter stages of development? I’m dying to know. Clues to the latter will no doubt come from the NDA packages we’ll see in due course. As to the quietness of their efforts, it has to be more than just keeping the science under wraps. I’ll try to find out some details and will let you know.
