Type 2 diabetes patients took a more active role in their treatment byadjusting their own dosing after being

Type 2 diabetes patients took a more active role in their treatment byadjusting their own dosing, after being trained and given an adjustmentschedule by their physician. Approximately 60 percent of patients takingLevemir(R) once-daily reached the American Diabetes Association's (ADA)recommended average blood sugar level.To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://"Teaching and empowering patients to adjust their own insulin doses can helpthem achieve good blood sugar control," said Lawrence Blonde, MD, Director,Ochsner Diabetes Clinical Research Unit, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetesand Metabolism at the Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans and the leadresearcher in the trial. "These findings showed that following aself-adjustment dosing schedule of Levemir(R) once-daily resulted in amajority of patients reaching the target blood sugar level that the ADArecommends for most patients."The TITRATE(R) study was published this week online in the journal, Diabetes,Obesity & Metabolism.Patients who had not previously used insulin and had a starting average bloodsugar level (A1C) of less than 9 percent, adjusted their dose of Levemir(R) toreach specific fasting blood sugar targets of 70-90 mg/dL or 80-110 mg/dL.Fasting blood sugar is the amount of sugar in the blood as determined by ablood test (called FPG) taken first thing in the morning after not eating forat least 8 hours. The study showed that Levemir(R) taken once-dailysubstantially lowered patients' A1C levels after 20 weeks for both FPG targetstested.In the study, 64.3 percent of patients in the 70-90 mg/dL FPG target treatmentgroup and 54.5 percent of patients in the 80-110 mg/dL FPG target groupreached the ADA recommended A1C level of less than 7 percent. A1C levels inthe 70-90 mg/dL group decreased by 1.2 percent to an average A1C of 6.77percent; A1C levels in the 80-110 mg/dL group decreased by 0.9 percent to anaverage A1C level of 7 percent."Good blood sugar control is important in managing diabetes, and the moreactive a role patients can play, the better," said Alan Moses, Vice Presidentand Global Chief Medical Officer at Novo Nordisk.

"This study is excitingbecause it showed that Levemir(R) at a once-daily dose helped these patientsmanage their condition, and in doing so, helped them achieve substantial A1Creductions."Rates of minor hypoglycemic events were low and comparable between the twotreatment groups (5.09 vs 3.16 events/patient/year in the 70-90 mg/dL and80-110 mg/dL FPG target treatment groups, respectively). A single majorhypoglycemic event (requiring third party assistance) was reported by apatient in the 70-90 mg/dL FPG target treatment group More details about thestudy can be found in the journal. Prescribing information for Levemir(R) isavailable by contacting Novo Nordisk or visiting novonordisk-us .About the StudyThe open-label TITRATE(R) study was a prospective, randomized, controlledstudy to examine the effect of patients self dosing of Levemir(R) once-dailyusing two FPG targets on blood sugar control. In thisquarter alone, that market write-down equates to more than 1billion pounds RBS has taken this as a "profit". The market is sceptical about RBS's ability torepay this, and has marked the bonds down accordingly. RBS's 51-page report also reveals the details of anotherbanking farce It has 31 billion pounds-worth of bondsoutstanding.

That means the bank's total lossesfor the quarter were 5.6 billion pounds. Moreover, that huge figure excludes 755 million pounds oftrading asset write-downs. These numbers show that it hasalready chalked up around 4 billion of that first loss. RBS has to take 19.5 billion in losses before itcalls on the government purse. RBS said that around 75 or 85 percent of the4.9 billion pound headline hit in the first quarter was toassets that will end up in the government's Asset ProtectionScheme (APS).

Moreover, RBS has also already agreed to join the governmentinsurance scheme. For Barclays, it makes more sense to take losses only asfast as you earn enough to cover them. Because RBS has taken a huge capital injection from thestate, chief executive Stephen Hester had much less to lose thanhis counterpart at Barclays John Varley in admitting that thingsare looking grim. Unlike Barclays, RBS is already attached to the governmentteat. They maynot have the same insurers, but they are also coming from theproblem from different angles. The followingday, RBS said fat chance -- we think it's 35 percent.

On May 7, Barclays said that it expects to get 76 percent ofany claim made against its "monoline" insurers. The opinions expressedare her own -- Stocks  |  Bonds  |  Global Markets By Margaret Doyle LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Barclays (BARC.L) thinks theinsurance it has against its "impaired assets" is worth twice asmuch as RBS (RBS.L) seems to believe It's hard to see how bothcould be right. -- Margaret Doyle is a Reuters columnist. but it's a decision PT has to make and there is nothing we can do to speed it up," he said.(For summit blog: blogs.reuters /summits/)(Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary and Robert Hetz; Editing by Andrew Macdonald and Simon Jessop) Cuba Brazil. churn should rise a little," he said.Regarding acquisitions, Telefonica would study opportunities that arise in Latin America -- possibly in Cuba and in Colombia -- but for the moment does not believe there is anything unmissable available."We do not need anything to execute our business plan, we are very comfortable with what we already have," he said.Analysts say the group's Latin American operations will this year help compensate for lower growth in recession-hit Spain, which still accounts for about one-third of Telefonica's revenues.Alvarez-Pallete said Telefonica still wants to buy the other half of Vivo (VIVO4.SA), its Brazilian joint venture with Portugal Telecom (PTC.LS)."Vivo is crucial for us in Latin America and if PT would like to sell, we would be buyers ... MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Telefonica (TEF.MC), the largest foreign investor in Latin America, is sticking with its investment plans in the region in spite of the global economic slowdown, the operator's regional chairman said on Friday. Theseapproaches can range from covering the whole of a therapy area, targeting asuite of products within one disease, to the highly specialized development ofniche products for orphan indications Pharmaceutical companies can focus their portfolios by either choosing a broadshots-on-goal approach, or opting for a narrower strategy focusing on a singledrug class.