Onglyza death knell

[Anonymous]

But Merck may have caught a big break when large studies of those drugs showed that they might increase the risk of heart failure. In a study called SAVOR, patients on Onglyza were 27% more likely to be hospitalized for heart failure, translating to an extra 0.6% of patients being hospitalized at 12 months. Patients taking Nesina had a slightly elevated risk of heart failure, thought the difference wasn’t significant. In April, a panel of advisors to the Food and Drug Administration voted that the drugs’ labels should carry warnings of the risk.

Januvia, however, doesn’t show any hint of the risk at all. In the trial being published today, called TECOS, 14,671 patients were randomly assigned to get either Januvia or placebo. Doctors were allowed to add other diabetes treatments in order to get the patients’ blood sugar under control.

 

[Anonymous]

Three docs today beat me up over this. I have no idea how to handle this objection. Any suggestions?

 

[Anonymous]

Three docs today beat me up over this. I have no idea how to handle this objection. Any suggestions?

Yes, tell the doc to do the right thing for the patient, try Januvia first in this class. If it is not tolerated or ineffective, then try Onglyza before dumping the entire class. Novel idea, do what is best for the patient, not AZ.

 

[Anonymous]

Screw those patients! I've got 3 kids in private school.

 

[Anonymous]

Screw those patients! I've got 3 kids in private school.

Onglyza is done unless you have great reps who can manage this setback. AZ is fucked

 

[Anonymous]

Screw those patients! I've got 3 kids in private school.

Try Public School. Less expensive after a layoff!

 

[Anonymous]

Screw those patients! I've got 3 kids in private school.

That's the spirit!! Screw patients! This is about my bonus, so I could give a rat's ass about some fat ass pig's health!

 

[Anonymous]

So what is the mantra again? Patient health first or help the patient journey?

Either way the butt swabs in HQ marketing will continue to circle the wagons telling each other how great they are while we deal w/ the repercussions. I would love to see these people in front of a customer trying to sell any product never mind Onglyza.

Just continue to do your focus groups and eureka I have a great idea meetings rehashing strategy and tactics from 10 years ago thinking it is new & let the "sales" people do what they do best.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's the Medscape link -http://wb.md/1MNpg3F

Summary: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the use of sitagliptin (Januvia, Merck), a dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor used to lower HbA1c levels, is not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, according to a large outcomes trial designed specifically to answer this question[1].

other drugs in the class, most notably saxagliptin (Onglyza, AstraZeneca) in the SAVOR TIMI- 53 study, showed an increase in heart-failure events.

Holman said the study was designed as a noninferiority study but had a sufficient number of patients and statistical power for a superiority analysis. "

How to respond to objection: As for why researchers observed a statistically significant 27% increase in the risk of heart failure with saxagliptin in SAVOR-TIMI, a nonsignificant trend toward increased heart failure in EXAMINE with alogliptin, yet no signal of harm in TECOS, Peterson said investigators really do not know the answer.

Unfortunately: To heartwire, Holman said that if physicians are looking at the data and wanting to choose an agent, the risk-averse doctor treating type 2 diabetic patients would presumably "vote with their feet" and select sitagliptin. What doc today isn't risk averse?

 

[Anonymous]

class effect for all class members

study had select healthier patients

Holman is clearly on the payroll

 

[Anonymous]

It's time to:

1. Get out now
2. Cry if you are women rep
3. Hide all the other reps samples
4. Give FREE Rx for HF meds with our drug
5. Tell them Merck is full of __________. You fill in the blank.
6. Bend over and KISS your Butt Goodbye.

 

[Anonymous]

Last post. You forgot one.

Be a whistleblower and make big $.