new smart insulin from Novo profiled in Nature NNC 2215- very early days but looks promising

I’d be very wary of smart insulin. I reckon its parameters will be wide and it will struggle with exercise, etc. I suspect it’s the holy grail for insulin companies simply due to the chance to make money.
 
There's been a bit more noise about this in the past month or two, I'm not sure quite why, but perhaps some study or other has been released (or simply more funding agreed?).

JDRF have been funding research into this for the best part of a decade I think? And various start-ups seeem to have been bought by bigger players like NovoNordisk and Sanofi

forum.diabetes.org.uk

smart insulin

forum.diabetes.org.uk forum.diabetes.org.uk
 
new smart insulin profiled in Nature this week and on R5 live this morning, Novo Nordisk's next generation effort, after NN1845 that appears to have stalled.
very early in development, no human trials thus far, NNC 2215 seems effective in turning itself off at low sugar levels in animal studies but very limited in dealing with post-meal 'excursions'. Nevertheless, should it get through trials, a big 'if', then could be helpful as a basal insulin limiting the dose also of short acting insulin required.
 
Inka said:
I’d be very wary of smart insulin. I reckon its parameters will be wide and it will struggle with exercise, etc. I suspect it’s the holy grail for insulin companies simply due to the chance to make money.
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A potential major advance shouldn't be so cynically dismissed,
NN and Eli Lilly working on it and funding announced for a further 6 projects around the world including China and Australia as well as university research groups in UK, europe and US so a big push on this presently,
Meanwhile, Vertex continues studies of a stem cell approach...
 
Do you work for Novonordisk?? I’m entitled to dismiss what I like, thanks. It’s realism not cynicism. Smart insulin has been discussed for many years and still not happened. Moreover, I have little faith that it will work well. I’m far more interested in the stem cell research and a potential cure.
 
Inka said:
Do you work for Novonordisk?? I’m entitled to dismiss what I like, thanks. It’s realism not cynicism. Smart insulin has been discussed for many years and still not happened. Moreover, I have little faith that it will work well. I’m far more interested in the stem cell research and a potential cure.
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The answer to your double question is 'no' but I've a medical background. Will have to agree to differ, effective stem cell therapy even further off than smarter insulins, in my opinion.
Worth bearing in mind, 6 smarter insulin projects announced in the last 4 months are sponsored by diabetes charities, JDRF, etc, and have no connection to drug companies,
where would we be without research done over the last 100 yrs by Novo, Nordisk before it became Novo Nordisk, Lilly, Sanofi, Zealand, Roche, Amgen, Structure therapeutics? Recently, many have benefitted from advances in GLP1 and GLP1-giP therapies to avoid going on insulin at all.
 
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I don't dismiss such things, merely note they're happening but certainly don't make any effort whatsoever to check up on them, cos if they ever come to fruition THEN there will be official news it's now available and then is also the time to make an effort to find out as much as possible about it, not right at the moment. Look well if we'd held our breaths waiting for the cure within the next 10 years such a lot of us were told! - and that makes at least that same number of us, cynical. Eli Lilly of course originally offered to purify the equally original animal insulin because they had the necessary lab facilities plus of course, it made business sense, for which we're still thankful and subsequently other pharma companies realised the same but over the last 50+ years I've personally seen a good many ideas that sounded like they certainly had promise for people with diabetes to intelligent people like us without specialist medical training subsequently come to nothing cos basically none of those mice they tried it on first apparently had the same metabolism or lifestyle of a normal human being.
 
have to agree you're right to be cynical, trophyw
if and this is a big if the results are similar in human trials and the drug is thought safe for long-term use then it may be helpful particularly in cutting down on nocturnal and other hypoglycaemia,
once weekly basal insulin icodec might come in before any of this, it's being assessed by NICE aimed at type 2, passes in Europe already, turned down in US, with a verdict in the new year. This is being followed closely by Lilly's similar but allegedly safer type 2 once weekly basal insulin, some think it could be a gamechanger, time will tell.
 
Ah, cynicism is ok now then - cool :D I was suspicious of your connections because of your username and because you’d previously suggested that Novo Nordisk should receive the Nobel prize! :rofl: I very much appreciate all the insulin manufacturers, particularly the ones that have retained older insulins like animal insulin that some people need, but they’re not acting from altruism. You only need look at the US to see that.
 
Inka

am aware that the Nobel Prize can't be awarded to a company, so I've never said that. I know it can only be awarded to individuals who might happen to work for a company, and only then if the drug proves a success which was a key condition of any comment made previously.

think the right word would be sceptical not cynical of any putative advance in smart insulin until human trials are well underway,
have you read the paper in Nature? if not, it's free - there's no subscription needed- points out the potential of the new molecule and its manifest likely drawbacks.

USA drug prices are very high but there again the costs of developing and producing safe drugs are enormous,GLP1 drug semaglutide was tested on 17000 subjects in trials in multiple countries for about 7 years' patent exclusivity in the US, and further trials with more subjects ongoing in a society that is litigious and pounces on any side-effects whether real or not- just ask GSK about their drug, Zantac
You can reply but this exchange is now closed from my end.
 
Thanks for the permission to reply. My comment re the US was largely referring to the price of insulin. Even the cheaper types are grossly overpriced. I didn’t ask for justification about the price of Semaglutide - just coincidently, I’m sure, another NN product - nor did I refer to GLP1s at all.
 
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