There are lots of smaller drug companies who make, test and then licence
products to the big players, who then can take them to market. It is
relatively common for this to be the chain of events which have new
drugs as the endpoint.

For instance, Israeli company (IIRC) Teva is a big research and
development source of new treatments, but you rarely see drugs labelled
as manufactured by them. Except in Europe where they also produce many
generics such as metformin. There are also several similar companies in
India doing good work.

Big Pharma is the way they choose to go as (especially in nations
without comprehensive state healthcare) it means the products can be put
into their sales chains and presented to doctors via representative
networks.

Ratty

Hi David,
very nice article.Shows that new solutions are discovered almost daily.Found
some additional information :

"KGA-2727", discovered by Kissei, is a selective inhibitor for Na+-dependent
glucose transporter (SGLT1) and an agent for treating diabetes with a novel
mechanism of action, improving postprandial hyperglycemia by inhibiting
glucose absorption in the gut. The effect of improving postprandial
hyperglycemia for this agent has been confirmed in various animal models for
diabetes, and the agent is expected to be a drug for diabetes with novel
approach.

Gene aliases: NAGT; SGLT1; D22S675
Summary: Glucose transporters are integral membrane proteins that mediate
the transport of glucose and structurally-related substances across cellular
membranes. Two families of glucose transporter have been identified: the
facilitated-diffusion glucose transporter family (GLUT family), also known
as 'uniporters,' and the sodium-dependent glucose transporter family (SGLT
family), also known as 'cotransporters' or 'symporters' (Wright et al.,
1994). The SLC5A1 gene encodes a protein that is involved in the active
transport of glucose and galactose into eukaryotic and some prokaryotic
cells.

hth
Gys