Diabetics take a deep breath for future therapy

Abstract

A revolution in the treatment of patients with diabetes is fast approaching. Two phase II clinical trials with inhaled insulin have shown that an aerosol formulation gives glycaemic control equivalent to that of SC insulin. Decreases in fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels were similar in patients treated with either inhaled or injected insulin during 3 months of treatment. Also, the incidence of hypoglycaemia did not differ between treatments. Results from the 2 studies show that these effects were similar in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data indicate that the aerosol formulation has a more rapid onset of action, compared with injected insulin, leading to a faster lowering of blood glucose levels, investigators reported at the American Diabetes Association meeting [ Chicago, US; June 1998 ].