Novo Nordisk discontinued its experimental AERx insulin inhaler - and the device wasn’t even the size of a bong. More like an eyeglass case. Nonetheless, Novo discovered belatedly there was little medical and commercial benefit to a newer contraption when compared with products that are the size of a pen and use a needle, Novo ceo Lars Rebien Sorensen explains in a statement.

And so Novo took a charge of about $260 million in 2007, and its move will affect an unspecified, but “significant number” of the 360 jobs at its Hayward, California site, spokeswoman Lori Moore tells Bloomberg News.

“Pfizer’s decision on Exubera prompted this,” Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, Novo’s chief scientific officer, also tells Bloomberg. “We have realized that the trend is for physicians to start treatment with something simple rather than a device that has to be loaded with insulin for each mealtime use.”

Exubera, of course, was summarily discontinued last October after such meager sales that the device was declared one of pharma’s biggest marketing disasters - largely due to poor product design (it resembled a bong). What might this mean for Lilly’s effort? The drugmaker remains steadfast, but the word on Wall Street: don’t hold your breath.