Eli Lilly and Company’s (LLY) shares were up 0.8% after the company announced encouraging data from the sixth phase III AWARD (Assessment of Weekly AdministRation of LY2189265 in Diabetes) study on its diabetes candidate, dulaglutide. Overall, the stock price has increased 1.1% on the news.

The randomized, open-label, parallel-arm AWARD-6 study (n = 599) compared the efficacy of once-weekly dulaglutide to that of Novo Nordisk’s (NVO) once-daily Victoza in patients suffering from type II diabetes, who are on metformin.

At 26 weeks, dulaglutide 1.5 mg showed non-inferiority to Victoza 1.8 mg in the reduction of HbA1c (hemoglobin A1c) levels and met the primary endpoint of the study. Earlier, in the five AWARD trials, dulaglutide has shown superior efficacy in reducing HbA1c levels when compared to placebo and other active comparators.

Eli Lilly has already submitted marketing applications for dulaglutide to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (:FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (:EMA).

Our Take

Dulaglutide is a long-acting glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist being developed as a once-weekly treatment for type II diabetes. We are encouraged with the results from the AWARD-6 study. We believe the dulaglutide once-weekly dosage can provide an edge over the daily dosing regimen of GLP-1 products like Victoza. Currently, Bydureon is the only GLP-1 receptor agonist which has a once weekly dosing.

However, several big pharma companies like Novo Nordisk (semaglutide) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) (Eperzan) have GLP-1 candidates with once weekly dosing in late-stage development.

Eli Lilly is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. Some better-ranked stocks include Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (AUXL) carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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