Auszug aus dem CC von Sanofi vom 09.06.2015 betreffend Afrezza:
Andrew Purcell, Sanofi SA - VP, Head of US Diabetes Business Unit [6]
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Thank you, Riccardo. And hello, everyone from -- again, from ADA scientific sessions, where I think we've had a great opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to leadership in diabetes. And in addition to the leadership in science that you've already heard much about, I would say we've had a very good commercial success, very strong booth presence and great traffic, a 25% increase over last year; 1,500 product details, mostly -- almost equally split between Toujeo and Afrezza; and almost 2,000 attendees at the education events that we sponsored. So very good success here in Boston.
And talking about Afrezza, let me take just a few minutes and one slide to give you an update on the Afrezza launch to date, and starting off with a focus on the headline and make it clear that we've implemented as a strategy a moderately targeted US launch, where, starting in February, in order to ensure that the specialists and high diabetes-treating physicians were appropriately aware, educated and have the capability to prescribe Afrezza, we targeted physicians who represent roughly 50% of the branded diabetes market in the US.
As I say, that launch started in February, bringing Afrezza, this new option, to either initiate or intensify insulin to the market, with a very distinct PK/PD profile that you see depicted on the right, this peak action in approximately 15 minutes and the rapid diminution of the insulin activity, which is certainly very much appreciated by customers who understand insulin pharmacokinetics.
We're currently working diligently to improve the market access position, where, going into the launch, we understood that this would largely be a third-tier benefit. And that's proving to be the case. And we need to ensure that it is third-tier benefit without restrictions. And as I say, we're having some good success already with a number of plans where we have completed contract discussions and have secured third-tier -- tier-three access for the product.
There will be additional activities in the second half of the year, having waited the respectful period to ensure that we're educating and informing physicians about the product, we'll be launching print and DTC promotion in a matter of weeks. Also the implementation, which has already begun, of our patient support program, the Afrezza COACH program. Over the last four to six weeks we've been able to accomplish, post OPDP comments, the training of a speaker bureau on this product and now substantial execution of peer-to-peer education programs. And you will have seen that the FDA recently approved the 12-unit cartridge. And we plan to launch that early in the -- late in the third quarter.
Data is obviously important for this product. And we're still in the process of ensuring that the pivotal -- the key Phase 3 data is available and well known. We're still in the latter stages of securing publication for the important AFFINITY 1 and AFFINITY 2 studies. And we're very pleased that some data from the AFFINITY 1 study was accepted for oral presentation here at ADA, data indicating that there's no increase in hypoglycemia risk resulting from use of Afrezza as a supplemental dose 90 minutes post meal.
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