Diabetes Inhaler

I was recently talking with someone involved with the production of the inhaler that administers insulin. This would be a great alternative for people not gung-ho on using needles. I personally hate using needles to give myself insulin.

The man told me that they stopped production on the inhaler because it wouldn't generate enough profit when introduced on the market. Is this true?

Mitch

It looks like they voted on it on 2005. Link

Then......

On October 18, 2007, Pfizer announced that it is returning its EXUBERA rights to Nektar Therapuetics and that it would continue to make EXUBERA available for three months, until January 16, 2008, to help physicians and their transition off EXUBERA and onto other glucose lowering therapies.

However, Pfizer recognizes that some patients may need EXUBERA for a additional period of time. Therefore, as of January 16, 2008, Pfizer is making an Extended Transition Program (ETP) available for qualified patients free of charge for a limited time.

Kinda odd that they said not enough people were using it so they took it off the market. .

Then I saw this..

In an ongoing review of Pfizer's (now discontinued) inhaled insulin (Exubera), an increased chance of lung cancer has turned up among participants in the clinical trials. Six of the over four thousand patients in the trials on Exubera have since developed the disease, versus one of the similarly-sized control group. Six isn't many, but with that large a sample size, it's something that statistically can't be ignored, either.

Link


Then this author says..

The FDA is going to be very, very cautious about allowing any sort of inhaled insulin trials to proceed. I’d think that you’d have to show that your product is different from Exubera in its carcinogenic risk just to get one off the ground, and frankly, I have no idea how you’d do that. Anything that could will take years to develop and validate.

Link




It does not look good for the inhaled insulin. But id rather them release a safe product than them release something that is going to hurt more than help.





[edit on 2-5-2008 by Digital_Reality]

It was not the only product being developed. My guess is since the inhaler is very cumbersome the firm feared other products will force them out of the market.
Here is a list of several products:
www.nature.com...
And i do not think that this delivery form suits everyone. As with other inhalers elderly and young have problems to use it. Pump for them is better but costs a lot more.
Here is another reason why it was probably dumped - cost effectiveness.
www.hta.ac.uk...

Well too bad they did not instantly make a billion dollars. Sometimes it should be about the people not the cost.

And the 600 to 1000 per patient per year figure is just a result of them coming out of the gate with a unreal price and expecting to quadruple their investment.

Sadly yes its all about money..