Repaglinide
Encyclopedia
Repaglinide is for the treatment of type II diabetes. It is supplied by Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and services. Created in 1989 through a merger of two Danish companies dating back to the 1920s, it has become one of the world's leading companies in diabetes care, where Novo Nordisk pursues research into pulmonary delivery systems;...

. In Japan, Dainippon Sumitomo pharma
Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma
is a pharmaceutical company based in Japan.The original Dainippon Pharmaceuticals was established in 1885 by Nagayo Sensai, a graduate of Tekijuku – the first private medical school in Japan established by Ogata Kōan. It was set up as a wholly private company invested by a number of people in...

 sells.

Repaglinide belongs to the meglitinide
Meglitinide
Meglitinides, aka "Glinides", are a class of drugs used treat diabetes type 2.They bind to an ATP-dependent K+ channel on the cell membrane of pancreatic beta cells in a similar manner to sulfonylureas but at a separate binding site. This inhibits a tonic, hyperpolarizing outflux of potassium,...

 class of blood glucose-lowering drugs.

Pharmacology

Repaglinide lowers blood glucose by stimulating the release of insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....

 from the pancreas
Pancreas
The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates. It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, as well as a digestive organ, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that assist...

. It achieves this by closing ATP
Adenosine triphosphate
Adenosine-5'-triphosphate is a multifunctional nucleoside triphosphate used in cells as a coenzyme. It is often called the "molecular unit of currency" of intracellular energy transfer. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism...

-dependent potassium channels in the membrane of the beta cells. This depolarizes the beta cells, opening the cells' calcium channels, and the resulting calcium influx induces insulin secretion.

History

Precursor drugs to repaglinide were invented in late 1983 by scientists at Dr Karl Thomae GmbH, a German drug manufacturer located at Biberach an der Riß
Biberach an der Riß
Biberach is a town in the south of Germany. It is the capital of Biberach district, in the Upper Swabia region of the German state of Baden-Württemberg...

 in southern Germany which was acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim in 1990. The drug that became repaglinide was later licensed by Boehringer to Novo Nordisk, which filed an Investigational New Drug
Investigational New Drug
The United States Food and Drug Administration's Investigational New Drug program is the means by which a pharmaceutical company obtains permission to ship an experimental drug across state lines before a marketing application for the drug has been approved...

 application for the compound with the Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

 (FDA) in April 1992. Novo Nordisk filed its New Drug Application
New drug application
The New Drug Application is the vehicle in the United States through which drug sponsors formally propose that the Food and Drug Administration approve a new pharmaceutical for sale and marketing...

 (NDA) for Prandin in July 1997 and it was quickly approved, gaining FDA approval in December 1997. The drug was the first of the meglitinide class. It was branded Prandin because its quick onset and short duration of action concentrates its effect around meal time (the prandium was the Roman meal which is comparable to the modern lunch).

Intellectual property

After several attempts to file for U.S. patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 protection, a filing was made in March 1990 which eventually became U.S. Patents 5,216,167 (June 1993), 5,312,924 (May 1994) and 6,143,769 (November 2000). After filing its NDA for repaglinide in 1997, Novo Nordisk applied for patent extension under the Hatch-Waxman Act. This process, called patent term restoration, allows drug patents to be extended based on the time that a drug spent in clinical trials and in the approval process. Previously it had been decided by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that the expiration date of U.S. Patents 5,216,167 and 5,312,924 would be 5 September 2006. In February 2001 Prandin's patent life was extended to 14 March 2009 in response to Novo Nordisk's patent term restoration application, with U.S. Patent 5,216,167 having been reissued as RE37035.

Prior to the end of repaglinide's patent term, Novo Nordisk obtained a new patent, U.S. Patent 6,677,358 (January 2004), covering the combination therapy of repaglinide together with the generic anti-diabetic drug metformin
Metformin
Metformin is an oral antidiabetic drug in the biguanide class. It is the first-line drug of choice for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, in particular, in overweight and obese people and those with normal kidney function. Its use in gestational diabetes has been limited by safety concerns...

. This new patent was due to expire June 2018. In January 2011, a federal court ruled Novo Nordisk's new patent invalid on the grounds of obviousness, and unenforceable on the grounds of inequitable conduct on the part of Novo Nordisk's patent attorneys.

Generic status

Per the above paragraph, repaglinide will not become available as a generic drug
Generic drug
A generic drug is a drug defined as "a drug product that is comparable to brand/reference listed drug product in dosage form, strength, route of administration, quality and performance characteristics, and intended use." It has also been defined as a term referring to any drug marketed under its...

 in the United States before March 2009.

Drug interactions

Repaglinide should not be administered concomitantly with gemfibrozil
Gemfibrozil
Gemfibrozil is the generic name for an oral drug used to lower lipid levels. It belongs to a group of drugs known as fibrates. It is most commonly sold as the brand name, Lopid...

, clarithromycin
Clarithromycin
Clarithromycin is a macrolide antibiotic used to treat pharyngitis, tonsillitis, acute maxillary sinusitis, acute bacterial exacerbation of chronic bronchitis, pneumonia , skin and skin structure infections...

 or azole
Azole
An azole is a class of five-membered nitrogen heterocyclic ring compounds containing at least one other non-carbon atom of either nitrogen, sulfur, or oxygen. The parent compounds are aromatic and have two double bonds; there are successively reduced analogs with fewer...

 antifungal
Antifungal
* Antifungal medication, a medication used to treat fungal infection s such as athlete's foot , ringworm, candidiasis, etc.* Antifungal protein, a protein family* an adjective referring to a fungicide compound...

s such as itraconazole
Itraconazole
Itraconazole , invented in 1984, is a triazole antifungal agent that is prescribed to patients with fungal infections. The drug may be given orally or intravenously.-Medical uses:...

 or ketoconazole
Ketoconazole
Ketoconazole is a synthetic antifungal drug used to prevent and treat fungal skin infections, especially in immunocompromised patients such as those with AIDS or those on chemotherapy. Ketoconazole is sold commercially as an anti-dandruff shampoo, topical cream, and oral tablet.Ketoconazole is...

 . Administration of both repaglinide and one or more of these drugs results in an increase in plasma concentration of repaglinide and may lead to hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia or hypoglycæmia is the medical term for a state produced by a lower than normal level of blood glucose. The term literally means "under-sweet blood"...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK