IQWiG says Trajenta gives 'no additional benefit'

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) said diabetes drug Trajenta linagliptin from Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (Ingelheim, Germany) and partner Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) provided "no additional benefit" over comparable therapy in three different settings. In September, the partners said they would not launch Trajenta ( Tradjenta -- U.S.) in Germany because they could not agree with the German Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) on the most appropriate comparator (see BioCentury, Sept. 19, 2011).

Under the preliminary benefit assessment report, a company may choose a comparator different from the one determined by G-BA but must provide sufficient cause for doing so. IQWiG, which is Germany's health technology assessment agency, said Boehringer did not sufficiently justify use of an alternate comparator. The company did not provide data using G-BA's comparator, and thus no additional benefit was determined, according to the institute. IQWiG also said Boehringer did not determine additional benefit for Trajenta compared with sitagliptin in the company's submission. ...