Content about Peptide hormones

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Novo Nordisk has launched a diabetes awareness sweepstakes in which the winners get a free trip to the 2013 IndyCar finale, the Danish drug maker said Friday.

The company announced that it had hired IZOD IndyCar Series Charlie Kimball as spokesman for its Race with Insulin contest. Kimball, the first licensed driver with diabetes to race at the highest level of the series, was diagnosed with the disease during a routine doctor visit in 2007 while racing in Europe and is a user of Novo Nordisk's NovoLog (insulin aspart [rDNA origin]).

PITTSBURGH — Mylan and Biocon have a deal to develop and sell generic insulin-analog products for diabetes, Mylan said.

Under the deal, Mylan will have the rights to develop and market Biocon's Glargine, Lispro and Aspart, respectively generic versions of Sanofi's Lantus, Eli Lilly's Humalog and Novo Nordisk's NovoLog.

NEW YORK — Demand for SeroVital-hgh — a proprietary amino acid compound developed by Sierra Research Labs — has spiked in the past month, in part due to recent exposure on news channels like CNN and on news programs like "The Today Show," the company announced last week. To help meet demand, the company on Dec. 21 announced distribution expansion through GNC. 

PRINCETON, N.J. — Novo Nordisk has launched a mobile app for hemophilia patients, the drug maker said.

HemaGo — available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices — is designed to track hemophilia treatment, bleeding episodes and life events, helping people with the condition and their caregivers monitor the details of treatment, including medications, dosing, bleeding information and the disease's effects on life events.

NEW YORK — The National Advertising Division on Thursday recommended that Church & Dwight discontinue its claim that the company’s First Response digital ovulation test is the “first and only test to predict ovulation based on your unique LH hormone level.”

The claim, which appeared on product packaging and on the company’s website, was challenged by SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics, the maker of the Clearblue DOT, a competing digital ovulation test product.

PHILADELPHIA — When one of Amylin Pharmaceuticals' diabetes drugs is used with mealtime insulin, both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patients maintain blood sugar in the normal glucose range on a daily basis, according to two analyses presented at the 72nd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

SAN DIEGO — Drug maker Amylin Pharmaceuticals has filed for regulatory approval of a drug to treat diabetes and elevated triglycerides in the bloodstream in children and adults with a rare disorder.

NEW YORK — Pfizer and Indian drug maker Biocon have ended a partnership that the companies started in 2010 to develop biosimilar treatments for diabetes, the companies said.

INDIANAPOLIS — A new drug for Type 2 diabetes made by Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim is available in pharmacies, the companies said Wednesday.

The two companies announced the availability of Jentadueto (linagliptin and metformin hydrochloride). The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug on Jan. 30.

WARSAW, Poland — Iceland-based drug maker Actavis and Poland-based Bioton have formed a partnership that they said would "shake up" the diabetes market.

Actavis and Bioton announced the signing of a $73.3 million deal to develop, manufacture and commercialize insulin products, including insulin analogues. Of that, Actavis will pay $29.4 million to Bioton when the deal is signed, while the rest will consist of milestone payments.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration's latest message to consumers and healthcare professionals seems like a no-brainer: "Insulin pens are not for sharing."

But the agency said it knew of two undisclosed hospitals that it said had reused the cartridge components of insulin pens in administering insulin to more than 2,000 patients, though the hospitals reportedly changed the pens themselves.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday issued seven warning letters to companies marketing over-the counter human chorionic gonadotropin products that are labeled as "homeopathic" for weight loss. The letters warn the companies that they are violating federal law by selling drugs that have not been approved and by making unsupported claims for the substances. There are no FDA-approved HCG drug products for weight loss.