In a first, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a therapy that slows the onset of Type 1 diabetes. Teplizumab, developed by Provention Bio, typically delays the need for insulin shots, blood-sugar monitoring, and diet control by about two years. For some, the effect lasted years longer.
The treatment could be a way to delay the life-changing regime of managing diabetes, which is often diagnosed in children or adolescence. Unfortunately, there are many hurdles to overcome before the drug can make a real difference. The most immediate and daunting problem: getting the treatment to the right people at the right time.
A drug that can slow the onset of the disease is a gift to people destined to develop Type 1 diabetes, which affects roughly 1-1.5 million Americans. “You don’t do anything if you have diabetes without thinking about the diabetes,” says Kevan Herold, a professor at Yale School of Medicine who was involved with the clinical studies of teplizumab. “You don’t eat, you don’t exercise, you don’t sleep, you don’t go to school [without thinking about it] — it’s there all the time.”
