## Her Diabetes Helps Her Connect With Patients 

For the past six years, 31-year-old Tehesha Jones has spent much of her time advising patients with diabetes how to man - age the disease. As a registered nurse with a degree in public health, Jones knows what to say. But when she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2009, she was left speechless. 

“It’s one thing to teach your patients about it, but it’s another when you are dealing with the medical condition yourself. Having all the book knowledge of what can happen as the disease progresses can be scary,” Jones says. 

She was first prescribed metformin, an oral medication. Then, she became pregnant and found herself injecting insulin four times a day to protect herself and her unborn child from gesta - tional diabetes. 

Soon after her daughter Aniyah was born, Jones’s physician switched her to Byetta , an injectable medication from Bristol- Myers Squibb taken twice a day before meals. It offered the potential for reductions in weight, blood sugar control and few side effects. “While I was glad to lose about 10 pounds while taking Byetta , I was working 13 hours a day, would sometimes skip meals and too often miss that second injection.” 

When Bydureon , a once-weekly formulation of Byetta , came to market in 2012, her doctor switched her to Bydureon . Today, she injects herself weekly, has lost an additional 10 pounds, and eats a healthier diet. “ Bydureon  is convenient, even with a busy lifestyle,” Jones adds. “And when patients with diabetes come to see me, I am able to share so much more with them.” 

In addition, metreleptin, under a rolling Biologics License Application review by the FDA, is a potential treatment option for patients with lipodystrophy, a life-threatening, “ultra-orphan” rare disease estimated to impact a few thousand people worldwide. There are no approved drugs for the underlying cause of the disease, a deficiency in leptin, a hormone secreted by fat cells that is important in regulating metabolism. 

Our company’s innovative diabetes portfolio also includes Onglyza  (saxagliptin), as well as Kombiglyze  XR and Komboglyze , its fixed-dose combination products with metformin. Onglyza  is a DPP-4 inhibitor, often used alone or with metformin, for patients at the earlier stages in their disease because of its strong safety and efficacy profile. 

The possibility that Onglyza  may have a significant effect on cardiovascular event reduction is the subject of intensive study. During 2013, results should become available from the 

16,500-patient SAVOR  trial, designed to determine whether treatment with Onglyza , when added to the patient’s current standard of care, would result in a reduction of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and stroke. Large cardiovascu- lar outcomes studies also are set for Bydureon  and Forxiga . 

Even after introducing entirely new approaches to treatment, company researchers continue to seek to broaden the poten- tial for innovation. For instance, the company in-licensed a PEG-FGF21 peptide from Ambrx Pharmaceuticals, with its first-in-class potential to reduce both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk by improving the lipid dysfunction seen in many patients with diabetes. Another approach targets the inhibition of CCR2/5 receptors and is being tested in diabetic kidney disease. A third approach, 11 β HSD inhibi- tors, has been shown in small studies to have activity in both diabetes and atherosclerosis. r 

Tehesha Jones 

