[acb-diabetics] New pill may may insulin injections not needed for type 2

[Patricia LaFrance-Wolf]

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This article originally posted 02 February, 2010 and appeared in  

Issue 507

New Oral Victoza May End Daily Insulin Injections

 

An oral drug being developed by Novo Nordisk shows that it can boost the
body's own insulin production and may banish daily insulin injections for
millions

of people with diabetes. 

 

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The drug is about to be tested on 155 British patients as part of a trial
that could transform treatment of the disease. 

 

It is an oral form of Victoza, a medicine already FDA approved for use in
diabetes, which 'turbo-charges' insulin production in the pancreas, the
organ

responsible for making the hormone. But in its current form, it has to be
injected. 

 

If trials are successful, it could mean many diabetics are freed from the
burden of daily injections to make up for the body's inability to make
enough

insulin. 

 

Type 1 diabetes affects 2.5 million in the U.S. and often starts in
childhood. The pill is unlikely to replace daily insulin jabs for these
patients, as

this form of diabetes often destroys the pancreas beyond repair.  But it
could help more than the 24 million in the U.S. who have Type 2 diabetes, a
much

more common condition that tends to affect people from middle age onwards.

 

Victoza, launched in Britain last year, and recently in the U.S. belongs to
a new class of medicines called glucagonlike peptides. 

 

These drugs, which are injected at the same time every day, send out a
signal for the pancreas to increase insulin output when blood sugar levels
have risen

too high. They also help by triggering weight loss. One major trial last
year suggested that they are almost twice as effective as some other
anti-obesity

drugs.  But the fact that patients still need to inject themselves is seen
as a potential barrier to its widespread use. 

 

Now Novo Nordisk, the company that makes the drug, has turned it into a pill
and is recruiting 155 patients in Britain to try it out in a trial, which is

expected to last a year. 

 

If it works, it could mean simply popping a tablet once a day instead of
painful injections. However, there have been concerns that the drug might
raise

the risk of thyroid cancer. 

 

A pill version of glucagon-like peptides would improve patient choice and
could mean a huge improvement in quality of life.

 

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