I was wondering what Novo thinks about the ultra fast acting human insulin Viaject submitted to FDA by the start-up company Biodel ? Some years ago Novo oficially gave up on improving Novolog while ridiculing Viaject. Has any of that changed now that Novo's own meal related oral insuln project turns out to be a major fuck-up ?
I doubt they reach the market, and if they do, I don't see how they can get significant penetration without backing of some serious marketing muscle. Their pricing approach will be interesting. Is it a ready-to-use solution ?
If this can be positioned as being as good as or better than Novolog at half the price I´d say we could have a challenge ahead. On the other hand, if it is nowhere near Novolog regarding performance, convenience and ease of use, who cares.
Our strategy towards Viaject/Biodel is simple: We avoid talking about them and then hopefully they die. That strategy didn't work very well towards Lantus, but this is a much smaller fish.
I am bit confused how you would position an "ultra-fast" insulin. NR can be dosed immediately before or after a meal which is a license that seems unimprovable. Maybe dosing before a meal would be dangerous with an ultra-fast insulin- you could be hypoing before you are halfway through your starter!
I agree, an ultra-fast acting injectable was given up by Novo a couple of years ago. Now, with the Novo meal-related oral insulin failing big time, what are the options going forward ? Do we re-start our fast acting injectable insulin analog program, do vi look at outsiders like Biodel/viaject, or do we keep a low profile making sure we milk the Novolog cash-cow while it lasts ? Obviously we milk the Novolog cow, but is there after the milking ? do we care ?
Actually, we are re-starting the fast acting injectable insulin analog program, rushing it into phase 1. Another management screw-up to stop it in the first place. Now what are we doing with the 300 R&D people working on oral insulin programs ? Hopefully, the long acting oral insulin program will last anothe year before closure.
I think the Novo ultra-fast acting insulin in recent phase 1 clinical trials simply is Novolog with added nicotinamide based on an invention made more than 16 years ago. Better later than never.
Hmm - getting yet another price increment out of re-formulating Novolog to become marginally faster using an ancient discovery... What a pathetic thought. Could only come from Novo. Seem to be no limit to their greed.
