B-MS' Glucophage Launched In USA

Bristol-Myers Squibb's oral antidiabetic drug Glucophage (metformin) has been launched in the USA as a first-line monotherapy or combination therapy with sulfonylurea drugs for type II diabetics whose hyperglycemia cannot be controlled by diet alone. The drug was approved in December 1994, with a 1P (priority review) classification.

During a teleconference to announce the launch, B-MS said that the price of Glucophage will range from $296 to $767 per year at the recommended maintenance doses of 1,000mg to 2,550mg a day. The average patient would pay just over $1 a day, said the company. The average wholesale price will be $40.42 for a bottle of a hundred 500mg tablets and $68.72 for a hundred 850mg tablets, which puts it at the higher end of currently-available branded oral diabetics.

American Diabetes Association representative Alan Garber, of Baylor College of Medicine, said that it is most likely that Glucophage would be used as an add-on therapy to improve blood sugar control of patients on sulfonylureas, as studies suggest that a direct switch is not a useful strategy.