Insulin Pill Against Diabetes Undergoes Testing

One of the most cumbersome and inconvenient aspects of diabetes is the fact that patients suffering from advanced forms need to inject insulin into their bloodstream each day. Their own body is unable to produce the hormone, and they cannot survive without it. Delivering insulin has become big business, and many research groups have been looking for a method of making the entire process simpler and more efficient. Now, the Denmark-based Novo Nordisk has been found to engage in phase 1 clinical testings of a new pill, which may deliver insulin without the need for painful shots.

The pharmaceutical corporation has been a leader in the field of diabetes care for most of its 87-year history, delivering numerous products and therapies to sufferers. The new effort, if successful, would additionally consolidate its position, while at the same time providing diabetes patients with the Holy Grail of all cures, the insulin pill. Encapsulating the hormone in an easy-to-swallow dose is not exactly a walk in the park, but the fact that Novo is so advanced in its research can only mean excellent news for the company and patients alike, Technology Review reports. 

In addition to the added comfort associated with receiving insulin in this manner, the pill would also entail other, more important benefits. If ingested, it reaches the stomach directly, from where it can easily go to the liver, mimicking the action of its naturally-produced counterpart. Generally, diabetes sufferers who have daily injections tend to insert the hormone in muscles or fat, which means that the substance is fairly far away from where it needs to go. This is why even patients who take their insulin shots at the correct time of day can develop hypoglycemia at any given point. 

There are several hurdles associated with delivering insulin orally. They include the highly-acidic nature of gastric liquids, the complex nature of the insulin molecules, the rate at which epithelial cells absorb the compound and so on. In order to circumvent most of these problems, the Novo team turned to protein engineering, so as to modify insulin according to needs. “You can't use human insulin [for developing orally-delivered pills]. ]It doesn't work,” explains Novo's chief scientific officer, Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen. The team is currently still tweaking its final product, details of which are currently kept under wraps.