Comments for Glumetza Growing Big for Santarus (NASDAQ: SNTS) and Depomed (NASDAQ: DEPO) at http://www.biomedreports.com , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.biomedreports.com Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:24:29 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.biomedreports.com/2009111518030/glumetza-growing-big-for-santarus-and-depomed.html#comment-1415 "sales of Glumetza with prescriptions currently at around 79,000 patients at the end of the third quarter, turning in a 20% growth over the second quarter of this year" Where is that information from? It's not correct. Santarus said in their quarterly earnings release that it was 9.2%, and that's for revenues, which benefited from a price increase. - BJ Wong Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:27:33 +0100 http://www.biomedreports.com/2009111518030/glumetza-growing-big-for-santarus-and-depomed.html#comment-1414 Sorry for the demeaning tone, no offense. I think you have some good stuff here, but I am just pointing out some incorrect statements. - JonMaverly Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:52:49 +0100 http://www.biomedreports.com/2009111518030/glumetza-growing-big-for-santarus-and-depomed.html#comment-1412 R., are you saying that Glumetza works differently than generic metformin [b]xr[/b] and that there's a difference in efficacy and side effects between the two? If so, please point us to that data. - BJ Wong Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:46:46 +0100 http://www.biomedreports.com/2009111518030/glumetza-growing-big-for-santarus-and-depomed.html#comment-1410 1) Glucophage XR and Glumetza have almost identical time-release properties AND active ingredient. Fortamtet has the same active ingredient but a completely different time-release system. 2) Glucophage XR is sold as generic, thats why Depomed sued Ivax/TEVA 3) Actually BMS doesn't pay royalties anymore. It payed a one-time royalty in 2003. The same applies for Ivax/Teva, who paid a one-time royalty. How can Glucophage XR not be generic, like you incorrectly posted, and still be sued by Depomed for selling a generic version of Glucophage XR? 4) Glucophage XR and Glumetza are almost identical in their time-release properties. Depomed made both of them! 5) "Glucophage XR is about half the price of Glumetza, and you get what you pay for in terms of efficiency and side effects: It's much better than generic Metformin, but not quite as good as Glumetza." - what exactly are those differences? Look at the side effects profile for both drugs (Glucophage XR and Gluemtza), look at any head-to-head trials (guess why there are none), then you will come to the same conclusion I have. Your article is awful and full of inaccuracies. Sorry. - JonMaverly Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:44:37 +0100 http://www.biomedreports.com/2009111518030/glumetza-growing-big-for-santarus-and-depomed.html#comment-1402 BJ Wong, you are absolutely 100% correct, it is the same drug as generic Metformin, Metformin is the active ingredient, my second sentence states this; new form of Metformin. The difference is in the delivery. Metformin is a generic, and Depomed's proprietary time-release is what makes it much more effective while lessening the side effects. JonMaverly, you are also onto something, while Glucophage XR is not generic, it is still a very similar drug. It is Bristol-Myers Squibb's version, for which they pay royalties to Depomed. It has the same active ingredient, and uses a time-release, in this case different from Depomed's Glumetza time-release, but BMS still pays royalties for the timed release part of the patent protection - just like Lupin will when / if they decide to pursue it further. Glumetza, however, uses Depomed's patented time-release technology and does come out on top of all the Metformins, there is plenty of data to support this. It's all in the inactive ingredients, no space to write a thesis on that here, but you both have good points, and as I stated in the article, there's room in this field for multiple players. Glucophage XR is about half the price of Glumetza, and you get what you pay for in terms of efficiency and side effects: It's much better than generic Metformin, but not quite as good as Glumetza. The market for metformin will increase dramatically with these new time-release versions of the drug. For generic metformin, the side-effects are intolerable to most, therefore the market for it has not been big, but this is changing rapidly as you can now have the benefits of metformin without the life-changing side-effects. - R. Saito Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:31:10 +0100 http://www.biomedreports.com/2009111518030/glumetza-growing-big-for-santarus-and-depomed.html#comment-1361 I agree with everything you wrote, expect for your essential premise: Glumetza has potential billion-dollar blockbuster. No analyst to date that has tracked Depomed or Santarus has projected more than $150 million. Plus Glucophage XR, is almost identical to it... which is now widely generic. - JonMaverly Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:17:16 +0100 http://www.biomedreports.com/2009111518030/glumetza-growing-big-for-santarus-and-depomed.html#comment-1357 Too bad it's chemically identical to the generics, which cost almost nothing. - BJ Wong Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:59:33 +0100