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New combination insulin, GLP1 receptor agonists in development
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The French biotechnology company Adocia announced the launch of a program to develop two new drugs combining insulin and GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat type 2 diabetes, according a company press release.
The combinations — insulin glargine (Lantus, Sanofi) plus dulaglutide (Trulicity, Eli Lilly) and insulin glargine plus liraglutide (Vicotza, Novo Nordisk) — will use Adocia’s BioChaperone technology, which solubilizes and stabilizes insulin glargine in an aqueous solution. This allows it to combine with the two GLP-1 receptor agonists.
“We are convinced that insulin glargine will remain foundational to diabetes treatment, especially with the recent emergence of glargine biosimilars. This program builds on our expertise in glargine formulation at neutral pH, which allowed us to move swiftly into preclinical development,” Olivier Soula, PhD, deputy general manager and research and development director of Adocia, said in the release. “Based on synergies with our BioChaperone Combo program, a first clinical study on a lead product could be initiated in 2017.”
Nova Nordisk’s combination drug of insulin degludec and liraglutide (IDegLira) is currently under FDA review and is approved in Europe under the brand name Xultophy. A combination of insulin glargine and lixisenatide injection (iGlarLixi, brand name LixiLan) from Sanofi is also being reviewed by the FDA and the European Medicines Agency. These FDA rulings are expected by the end of 2016.