Amylin Puts Diabetes Treatment Pramlintide Into Phase III

Diabetes specialist Amylin Pharmaceuticals has begun Phase III trials of its lead compound AC137 (pramlintide) in insulin-using Type II diabetic patients.

The pivotal study will run for one year and test the efficacy of certain doses of the drug to safely improve glucose control. In Phase II trials, pramlintide, an analog of the hormone amylin, has been shown to significantly improve post-prandial glucose control and reduce average blood glucose when administered along with normal insulin doses (Marketletters passim).

The amylin hormone, like insulin, is secreted from the beta cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans, and it has been noted that it is the deficiency of this compound and insulin that underly Type II diabetes.