Aventis announced that Lantus (insulin glargine), the 24-hour peakless basal insulin, has been launched in France. In 2003, Aventis has launched Lantus in many key countries throughout the world, including Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Israel, South Africa, and India. France is the latest in the 2003 countries, and there are more launches planned for the rest of the year.
Lantus was launched in Germany in 2000 and in the US in 2001, and the UK and Ireland in 2002. It is the first and only insulin analog that provides 24-hour glucose lowering activity with just one injection.
In the US, Lantus was the leading insulin on a total prescription (TRx) basis at the end of June 2003. In the UK, the launch of Lantus has been extremely successful, with sales of over 15 million euros with less than one year on the market. Also in the UK, Lantus has over 10 per cent of the total insulin market (IMS figures, June 2003). Sales in recently launched markets are performing equally well.
"This has been a very important year for Lantus, as we continue to make this important therapy available for millions of diabetes patients," explains Kim Carroll, vice president, Diabetes at Aventis.
Basal insulin therapy can effectively help patients with diabetes achieve tight blood sugar control, defined by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) asan A1C<7.0 per cent and by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) asanA1C<6.5 per cent. Currently, less than half of the more than 11 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes are meeting these blood sugar goals. Worldwide, less than 20 per cent of the people with diabetes have good metabolic control.
Lantus demonstrates a slow, prolonged absorption and a relatively constant concentration/time profile over 24 hours. It is unique in that it has no pronounced peak. Lantus also has a consistent delivery of insulin and similar absorption and consistency of action regardless of injection site.
Lantus is expected to become the flagship of the Aventis diabetes portfolio. This novel basal insulin, which provides 24-hour blood glucose lowering activity while being administered just once per day, generated sales of €299 million in 2002 and sales of €199 million in the first half of 2003.
In addition to Lantus, Aventis also offers (glimepiride), a once-daily oral sulfonylurea that provides 24-hour control of type 2 diabetes, which generated global sales of €578 million in 2002, and the Insuman family of insulins, which generated global sales of €172 million in 2002. Pipeline products include Exuberaâ, DiaPep277 and Apidra.
Exubera, an inhaled insulin, is being developed in partnership with Pfizer, Inc.. Apidra, (insulin glulisine) an injectable rapid-acting insulin was submitted for registration in the European Union and the U.S. in June 2003. DiaPep277, which is currently in phase I/II in cooperation with Peptor, is a newly licensed compound that is under investigation for the treatment of type 1 diabetes and Latent Auto-immune Diabetes of the Adult (LADA). Also in June 2003, Aventis signed a licensing agreement with Zealand for the development and worldwide commercialization of AVE-0010 (ZP10), a GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) receptor agonist of the exendin class currently in phase I/II.