Regulators in Europe have given the green light to Eli Lilly’s Trulicity, its once-weekly glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist for type 2 diabetes.
The European Commission has approved Trulicity (dulaglutide) in combination with other diabetes treatments and as monotherapy when diet and exercise alone do not provide adequate glycaemic control in patients for whom metformin is inappropriate. The medicine comes in a ready-to-use pen with a pre-attached, hidden needle and the thumbs-up comes two months after the US Food and Drug Administration approved the therapy.
The marketing authorisation is based primarily on six large Phase III trials and in the first five, Trulicity 1.5mg was superior to placebo and four commonly used type 2 diabetes medicines in reducing average blood sugar levels.
The drug will now compete with AstraZeneca’s once-weekly GLP-1 receptor agonist Bydureon (extended-release exenatide), and GlaxoSmithKline’s Eperzan (albiglutide), approved in March.
