Good news for diabetes patients! Time to say Good bye to those painful insulin shots as scientists claim to have developed a new form of insulin which could be orally inhaled for absorption via lung.
Afrezza which is a new drug is awaiting approval from the US Food and Drug Administration works faster , it keeps blood sugar level in control and it has less risk of causing low sugar level.
Afrezza can be inhaled as dry powder which gets dissolved in lungs. The particles then pass through the lungs into the bloodstream and start acting immediately and peaks into action about 12 to 15 mins after inhalation.
It is believed that this drug is more effective than an injection of the same drug.
Afrezza is not the only one previously first inhaled insulin named Exubera received FDA approval but the drug had to be removed from the market in 2007 as it caused health concerns.According to the study Exubera in some diabetes patients caused reduction in lung function whereas in other cases there was an increased risk of lung cancer.
Cancer studies have been conducted on Afrezza in rats . Rats were given a higher inhalation dose than the humans would take and the best thing is that the researchers did not find any increase in lung cancer among them. It is said that no such studies were done earlier for Exubera.
Afrezza has come as a good news for insulin dependent diabetic patients but it still has to become a reality . Till then it seems that diabetic patients will have to depend on those painful insulin jabs !
by on 25. Mar, 2010 in Diabetes News and Research
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