Pfizer Global Manufacturing announced that it plans to hire nearly five hundred new employees and invest up to one hundred seventy million dollars to develop its new diabetes treatment drug, Exubera.
A unique factor in this diabetes drug is that it will be inhaled through the mouth, instead of requiring the diabetic to inject insulin into his body. This will for all purposes eliminate the need for problems, one of the more difficult aspects of life for millions of diabetics. Not only are injections painful, but they are always sources of potential infections. Pharmaceutical companies and medical experts have provided strong evidence that there will be an excellent response to a new form of insulin.
Using Exubera
This drug is a dry insulin of human powder, which is injected in the mouth with an inhaler. Users will inhale the medicine before meals and whenever necessary. It is the first inhaled diabetes drug that will treat both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in adults. The only diabetics who should not use Exubera are people with existing lung disease. The reason that adults with lung diseases will not be able to use the drug is associated with a decrease in lung capacity, which is observed in people during clinical trials. Most adults report that the inhaler is very simple and easy to use and can even be used in public. It is small, weighs only about four ounces, and it has a body size for glasses.
There is a slight decrease in lung function in those who participate in pilot studies. This was estimated at about one percent loss of the lungs per year, but the results were reversed when the drug was discontinued. Most people over the age of 25 lose about the same number of lungs per year, regardless of the use of the drug.
Type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes affects between 5 and 10 percent of all diabetics, and this type of diabetes requires the individual to take insulin to stay alive. These people have to inject regularly through their lives, and so far there have been few options to get away from this painful routine.
Inhalation insulin will eliminate the need for adults to inject themselves into the body every day and allow them more freedom and fewer restrictions due to the storage conditions of liquid insulin.
Type 2 diabetes
Type 2 diabetics cannot make or use insulin, which is in the body properly, so they need insulin supplements. It is estimated that between ninety and ninety-five percent of all diabetics fall into this category. It is estimated that there are more than 200 million diabetics around the world, and their number is increasing only every year.
Products like Exubera are needed to help diabetics determine how to manage type 1 or type 2 diabetes without the need for injections. Adults will now be able to use the inhalation form of insulin, and research will continue in the much-needed form of the drug.
