Can good Byetta news counteract the bad?

The Byetta saga continues today: Amylin Pharmaceuticals saw its stock fall Friday after a Citi Investment analyst decreed that the diabetes med causes four times as many cases of pancreatitis as Merck's competitor Januvia. And, the analyst said, Amylin (and partner Eli Lilly, of course) may have a tougher time getting the extended-release version approved if a link between Byetta and pancreatic inflammation bears out.

Then on Sunday, The Lancet published a new study of that extended-release Byetta--a study that showed it controlled blood sugar better than the daily version does. More patients on the weekly version reached the blood sugar goal, the researchers found. The extended-release form also caused fewer side effects, the study authors said.

What's next is anybody's guess. Stay tuned.

- see the Washington Post story
- check out the article in The Telegraph
- get the stock news in Forbes

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