Eli Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim launch educational program for healthcare professionals

INDIANAPOLIS — Drug makers Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly have started a campaign designed to educate healthcare professionals about the role a type of protein plays in maintaining blood-sugar balance.

BI and Lilly created the website sglt.com to inform users about the role of sodium glucose co-transporters. The program also includes a video, Glucose Perspectives, in the form of a sketch animation by the United Kingdom's Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

SGLTs work by ensuring that glucose entering the kidneys finds its way back into the bloodstream instead of being passed in urine. SGLT1 and SGLT2 reabsorb nearly all the filtered glucose in the kidneys, with SGLT2 accounting for 90% of reabsorption, according to a 2008 study.

In March, the drug makers applied with the Food and Drug Administration for approval of empagliflozin, a drug that belongs to a new class called SGLT2 inhibitors. The partnership between the two companies was announced in January 2011.

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