One step closer to putting a groundbreaking oral insulin capsule on the market for T2

[Northerner]

Jerusalem?s Oramed Pharmaceuticals is one step closer to putting a groundbreaking oral insulin capsule on the market for people with Type 2 diabetes. The company is about to begin Phase 2 clinical trials on 147 people at about a dozen medical centers in the United States.

CEO Nadav Kidron tells ISRAEL21c that the company?s flagship product could revolutionize the treatment of diabetes, which now affects more than 371 million people worldwide and is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. Most cases are Type 2, where the body does not use the hormone insulin effectively to metabolize sugars.

The current method of self-injecting insulin is unpleasant and also carries the constant risk of infection. A capsule taken by mouth would be more convenient and also more natural, as it would mimic insulin?s normal route in the body. But until now nobody had found a way to orally deliver large-molecule polypeptides such as insulin and vaccines.

http://israel21c.org/headlines/groundbreaking-insulin-pill-nearing-market/

 

[Vicsetter]

If you read the inventors website this is for early stage intervention to slow the development of T2. It is also envisaged to be used (I presume as a basal replacement) for T1s.

They are also working on a exanatide (Byetta, Bydureon) pill replacement which should alleviate the negative side effects.

Not bad for 11 employees!

For once there is scientific abstracts on their website, although, as they admit, the trials have been with very small sample sizes.

 

[robofski]

Interesting development. The article mentions three phases of type 2, treat with diet and exercise, treat with oral meds, insulin dependence. If a type two reaches insulin dependence because their own pancreas stops producing insulin, does that not make them a type 1?

 

[Northerner]

Interesting development. The article mentions three phases of type 2, treat with diet and exercise, treat with oral meds, insulin dependence. If a type two reaches insulin dependence because their own pancreas stops producing insulin, does that not make them a type 1?

No, as Type 2 is a problem with insulin resistance, which may lead to insulin insufficiency, and usually the doses of insulin injected are much higher than with Type 1 (not always though, this is diabetes after all!). Many T2s on insulin are on a basal insulin only.

In the 'old days' the two types used to be IDDM and NIDDM (Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus and Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus)

 

[robofski]

Thanks Alan, it was this in the article that confused me:

In the third phase, when the insulin-producing pancreas cannot continue producing the hormone, a patient becomes insulin-dependent.

No mention of resistance just non production.