Eli Lilly and Co and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc’s diabetes drug Byetta proved better at reducing glucose levels compared to its rival, Merck & Co’s Januvia, the companies’ officials announced on Tuesday.

Byetta, which is administered through injection twice a day in order to lower blood sugar in people suffering from type 2 diabetes, was released on the market in 2005. Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. Amylin also plans to come up with the long-acting release formula, which is scheduled to hit the market in 2010. The new version of the Byetta will be injected once a week.

Data of the four-week study were presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Rome, Italy. The study involved 61 patients who were given either Byetta or Januvia. Januvia is taken once daily as a pill. After four weeks, the researchers compared the effect of Byetta and Januvia on glucose levels two hours after a meal. They found that patients on Byetta had significantly reduced glucose levels compared with those treated with Januvia.

To be more specific, the glucose levels fell an average of 112 milligrams per deciliter of blood in patients treated with Byetta while the glucose levels fell just 37 milligrams per deciliter for those on Januvia. Also patients treated with Byetta seemed to eat less than those treated with Januvia.

The study will be published in the Current Medical Research and Opinion Journal.

The American Diabetes Association estimates there will be nearly 50.2 million people with diabetes by 2025, especially that obesity epidemic continues to spread. Currently there are about 25 million Americans living with diabetes, with about 6 million not even knowing that they have the condition.

The encouraging results come a month after the Food and Drug Administration warned doctors and patients about Byetta’s pancreatitis risk. Since October 2007, the treatment with Amylin’s best-selling drug caused six patients hemorrhagic pancreatitis and necrotizing pancreatitis forcing them to check into hospitals. Two of them died.