ADA 2021: AstraZeneca touts Bydureon trial win in children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes

As it approaches the end of a distinguished run, AstraZeneca’s type 2 diabetes franchise is showing its age. Sales are in decline for Byetta and Bydureon as they’ve been squeezed by formidable foes in Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Trulicity, Merck’s Januvia and Novo Nordisk’s duo of Victoza and Ozempic.

But the franchise has a knack for getting to the finish line first. In 2005, Byetta was the first GLP-1 receptor agonist to hit the market. And 16 years later, the extended-release version of the drug, Byetta, has become the first once-a-week GLP-1 med to complete a trial in children and adolescents with type 2 diabetes.