http://blog.ted.com/2014/01/14/7-ways-scientists-are-attempting-to-move-beyond-needles/ Inhalable insulin People with type 1 diabetes have to give themselves a lot of shots, and there has long been a desire to create an inhalable form of insulin for them. Exubera was the first to hit the market in the United States in 2006 — however, its high cost and oversized inhaler led to poor sales and it was soon discontinued. But the quest for a viable product continues, according to this Forbes magazine story from August. Mannkind Corporation has an inhalable insulin, Afrezza, that has completed phase 3 clinical trials with impressive results. The company calls its inhaler “the Dreamboat” because it is so small, though this insulin is still awaiting FDA approval. A diabetes pill At the same time, Novo Nordisk (the world’s largest seller of insulin products) and Oramed Pharmaceuticals (a smaller company headquartered in Israel) are both at work developing a pill for type 1 diabetes. But according to NewsMaxHealth.com, both are a long way from approval — Peter Kurtzhals, Novo Nordisk’s head of diabetes research, estimates that it’ll happen by the end of the decade. The challenge: that the stomach breaks down insulin in just a few seconds, so the key is creating a molecule that degrades at a slower pace. “Risk is still high for this type of project,” says Kurtzhals. “But the chance of success has gone up quite dramatically.”
I think they are both neat ideas. I would rather see a new,100% pain free treatment come along instead of add on treatments.
I thought the concept of inhaled insulin was put aside years ago. I can't really appreciate the attraction...
It has been by most large pharmaceutical companies. Several have tried and there are just too many hurdles and lack of success to make it a viable option with the standard technologies we have now. Here is something I think is interesting. No clue if it will ever come to fruition, but interesting none the less. http://news.wfsu.org/post/smart-contact-lens-might-one-day-let-diabetics-check-blood-sugar
Love to hear about the new things they are trying thanks for this post. Whilst many might not work there seems to be so much in the pipeline I'm hopeful that some of the projects will work in the real word. Off thread i know but Cathy I see your son uses the Omnipod, my son is a similar age and it's the pump that i'm most attracted too as he doesn't want tubes. Read a few bad reviews though and wondered how you get along with it?
Actually, I remember see this article about the use of inhaled insulin a few months ago: http://www.sansum.org/artificialpancreasvideo/
My son caught me reading about this inhaled insulin and he was like "When can I get that?" When I asked his diabetes team they didnt realize another company was in the process of getting fda approval for an inhaled insulin. They sort of put it down. I guess change can be hard, even for medical types!! I remember reading financial analysis of the company that is developing the inhaled insulin, and the analyst said "To spot something successful ask yourself the inverse question. Would anyone move to injected insulin from an inhalable insulin assuming the same results?" I thought that was a really interesting way to look at it. My son is like "sign me up"!
We are very new - but he really likes it. He says it is the closest he's come to feeling like he doesn't have this disease. He has had a few pod failures, and so far, I don't feel we have as good of control - although maybe, just maybe, it is having more information from the CGM and really, the control is similar. We had one big high from failure to bolus (new pod). He doesn't like how they look, but he's still a bit sensitive to it all yet. I think in the long run, we'll love it.
