Boehringer’s Trajenta launched in the UK
pharmafile | September 20, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Boehringer, Trajenta, diabetes
Boehringer Ingelheim has launched its new diabetes drug Trajenta in the UK, with a price tag to match its rival Januvia.
Trajenta (linagliptin) is now available in the UK as a single dose (5mg), once-daily tablet for the treatment of adults with type II diabetes.
A spokeswoman for Boehringer told Pharmafocus the drug would cost £33.26 at a 5mg dose for 28 tablets, which totals around £432.38 for a full year’s treatment.
The spokeswoman said the drug has been priced to match Merck’s blockbuster DPP-4 inhibitor Januvia (sitagliptin), its closest rival, which also costs £33.26 for a 28-tab pack, but comes at a 100mg dose.
The drug was approved by the EMA last month as a monotherapy in patients whose blood sugar level are inadequately controlled by diet and exercise alone and for whom metformin is inappropriate due to intolerance, or contraindicated due to renal impairment.
It can also be used in combination with metformin when diet and exercise plus metformin alone do not provide adequate glycaemic control, and in combination with a sulphonylurea and metformin when diet and exercise plus dual therapy do not provide a good control of sugar levels.
Renal impairment
Where Trajenta differs from Januvia is in its ability to be given to patients with renal impairment – which affects around two-thirds of diabetes patients – without having to adjust their dose.
Trajenta is the first one-dosage strength drug licensed specifically for diabetes patients with kidney problems, which Boehringer says could give it an edge over the current market leader Januvia, which made $2.4 billion in sales last year.
Professor Anthony Barnett, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust and University of Birmingham, said Trajenta was “an important advance in the management of type II diabetes”.
“[Trajenta] offers the benefits of the DPP-4 inhibitor class with good tolerability, weight neutrality and low risk of hypoglycaemia and the additional advantage of health professionals being able to prescribe without dose adjustment irrespective of the patient’s renal function.
“Renal impairment is common in people with type II diabetes so this latter point is extremely important,” he added.
The drug was approved on the strength of trials showing it reduced blood sugar levels by as much as 0.7% compared to placebo, and by up to 0.6% when added to the treatment of patients whose diabetes was inadequately controlled on metformin or metformin plus sulfonylurea.
Ben Adams
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