
SAN DIEGO & INDIANAPOLIS & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMLN), Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Alkermes, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALKS) today announced positive results from a head-to-head study comparing exenatide once weekly, an investigational diabetes therapy, to BYETTA® (exenatide) injection taken twice daily, in patients with type 2 diabetes. After 24 weeks of treatment, patients taking exenatide once weekly experienced a statistically superior reduction in A1C, a measure of average blood sugar over three months, of 1.6 percentage points from baseline, compared to a reduction of 0.9 percentage points for BYETTA. Patients treated with exenatide once weekly achieved a mean A1C of 7.1 percent compared with a mean A1C of 7.7 percent in those treated with BYETTA. Both treatment groups achieved statistically significant weight loss by the end of the study, with an average loss of 5.1 pounds for patients taking exenatide once weekly and 3.0 pounds for patients taking BYETTA.