Loading up docs with those 5mcg Byetta sample pens may have its, well, good points. Nurses can immediately train patients on their use, which is otherwise a bit of a time-consuming nuisance if, instead, the patient has to run to the pharmacy and then return to the doctor’s office for instructions.

“They are clearly driving uptake, or at least curbing erosion to (other diabetes treatments) by making it easier on the patient and the physician/nurse practitioner. Assuming that a patient can tolerate 5mcg, this should then increase the odds the patient moves onto becoming a paying 10mcg patient,” writes Mike King of Rodman & Renshaw, in an investor note, after hosting a roundtable with medical experts to discuss diabetes treatments.

This view is certainly good news for Eli Lilly and Amylin. They market Byetta, which costs $2,400 or more a year.

There is one downside: For docs, they have less room in the fridge for all those free meals the sales reps dropped off. (You don’t think they use separate fridges now, do you?)
[tags]Amylin, Byetta, Eli Lilly, Samples, Type 2 Diabetes[/tags]