Diabetics taking Byetta and metformin had a a statistically significant lower risk of developing hypoglycemia, 2.6 percent, than those taking insuling, 17.4 percent, in a study of 114 patients that was released at the American Diabetes Association meeting yesterday. Byetta also showed a 5.7 pound weight loss, compared with a 1.3 pound gain in the other group.

Although very positive for Lilly and Amlyn Pharmaceuticals, the findings are already well known and are unlikely to boost sales, says Jon LeCroy, an analyst for Natexis Bleichroeder, tells CNNMoney.com. “That’s been the advantage of Byetta all along and it’s not that surprising. I think they would use it to market the drug, but my guess is that the docs already know that.”

Data mining is expected to be a hot topic at the American Medical Association meeting this week, where protests are planned against the organization’s system of allowing doctors to opt out of the info-gathering process.

“Doctors are not aware that companies are out there that know every prescription a doctor prescribes,” says John Santa, an internist and consultant to the Prescription Project, which is part of a coalition trying to curb pharma’s access to prescribing info. “If these data-mining companies use this information in a systematic way to improve safety or quality, that would be different,” he tells The Chicago Tribune. “But they don’t. They use it for sales, and most doctors don’t even know it’s there.”

Michael Mendoza, clinical assistant professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine who is also involved in the Prescription Project, adds that: “If doctors are unaware it happens, they aren’t in a position to choose. It’s a practice that flies under the radar of most docs. At least two-thirds of doctors do not know that this goes on because they are not members of the AMA.”