Panel Urges OK for New Diabetes Drug

Diabetics may soon get a new medicine that promises to help their bodies produce insulin only when they need it, at mealtime. Scientific advisors to the Food and Drug Administration recommended that Novo Nordisk’s repaglinide be approved to treat Type II diabetes. But the doctors cautioned they weren’t sure how to prescribe the drug--and asked if diabetics really would opt to take a drug three times a day, 15 minutes before every meal, when older medicines work with just one tablet a day. “You need insulin when you eat,” responded company scientist Dr. Peter Damsbo. “No meal, no tablet.” But Novo Nordisk never proved that taking medicine only with meals actually improved diabetes care, panel chairman Dr. Robert Sherwin of Yale University said after the 8-1 vote.