In today's matchup, we have two drugmakers both waiting for decisions from the Food and Drug Administration about their diabetes drugs: Amylin Pharmaceuticals and MannKind.
Which one's the better buy? Let's take a closer look.
A little background
Amylin's Bydureon and MannKind's Afrezza won't actually compete with each other, as they're used by diabetics during different stages of their disease development.
Bydureon is a long-lasting version of Amylin's Byetta, which is typically prescribed after oral medications are no longer effective at keeping blood glucose levels down in type 2 diabetics. Unlike Byetta, which has to be injected twice a day, Bydureon only has to be injected once a week, thanks to an extended release technology developed by Alkermes.
Afrezza is an inhaled insulin product that would compete with injected insulin given to type 2 diabetics after their disease has progressed substantially, as well as type 1 diabetics. The drug has passed multiple phase 3 trials.
Market
On the surface, Afrezza looks to have the upper hand here. If the drug works as well as or better than injected insulin, who wouldn't want to give up syringes and pumps for an inhaler?
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