Business News In Brief

Roche primary care "scale up": Ahead of a potential launch of the GLP-1 analog taspoglutide for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, Roche will need to "scale up" its primary care infrastructure, Pharmaceuticals Chief Operating Officer Pascal Soriot said during an investor meeting in New York Feb. 4. If approved, the drug would compete against entrenched rivals, including Lilly/Amylin's established Byetta (exenatide) and Novo Nordisk's recently approved Victoza (liraglutide). Still, Soriot maintained, "the scale-up is not as big as people ultimately think." In the U.S., the company already has a primary care infrastructure in place, he said, including 570 reps visiting physician offices and 250 visiting clinics. The filing for taspoglutide has been pushed back to 2011 from an earlier target of 2010 due to a delay in the start of a large cardiovascular safety study, T-EMERGE 8. Roche is expecting to file once interim results are in hand