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Diabetes
breakthrough from India: a single shot of insulin for one month
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New Delhi: By Pallava Bagla, A team of
Indian scientists has discovered a novel form of insulin that could
drastically reduce the suffering diabetics face in controlling their blood
sugar.
For the diabetics, daily painful pinpricks to inject doses of insulin is a
routine affair, now in a new discovery scientists claim a single shot of
insulin could help keep sugar levels under control for more than a month.
Today the effect of each insulin injection lasts at best for a day.
India is considered the diabetes capital of the world, with as many as 50
million people suffering from this chronic disease, so any new discovery is
welcomed with open arms.
The team spent 2 million rupees and took two years to come with this novel
solution. These scientists have already patented the technology,
commercialized it and the new insulin could well become a big money spinner
in times to come, feels the man who discovered this new form of insulin.
"It is a multi-million dollar technology transfer agreement with royalties
once the product goes to the market and if I am not wrong it is one of the
biggest scientific innovations to have come from a government owned research
laboratory," said Professor Avadhesha Surolia, Director, National Immunology
Institute, New Delhi.
The researchers treated natural human insulin at varying temperatures and
chemical conditions and one such special formulation does the magic. In
experiments done on rats, mice and rabbits the team could control the sugar
levels like of these diabetic rats simply by giving an injection once every
three months.
Imagine having to do away with multiple injections everyday to control the
sugar problem. The simplicity of the discovery and its huge potential has
attracted immediate attention.
"Both conceptually and for clinical practice it is an exciting discovery
because it uses natural chemically unchanged insulin and clinically it is
useful because it provides ease for patients by reducing the number of pin
pricks," said Dr Ambrish Mithal, Diabetologist and president, Endocrine
Society of India.
It is not often that new drug is discovered in India, but its use in humans
could still be many years away.
The new insulin molecule discovered by Indians in India could become a
blockbuster drug in times to come as it holds a lot of promise, currently
being tested on animals like on rats, it will soon undergo human trials and
then it may become available as drug for the treatment of diabetes.
- Courtesy: NDTV
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