 |
| Oral Insulin: Better Health for a Better Price |
Glucose level variations | In 2000, there were 160 million people worldwide with diabetes. By 2025 this figure will have skyrocketed to more than 280 million. Diabetes is an increasingly costly disease – to patients, their carers and to the healthcare budget.
Diabetes is a disease where the body cannot self-regulate blood sugar levels. In a healthy person, levels of blood sugar vary within a very small range – between 10% and 15%. However, in people with diabetes, the slightest change in diet or stress can lead to large swings in their sugar levels. Becoming hyperglycemic (excessively high sugar levels) or hypoglycemic (excessively low sugar levels) can be seriously life threatening - leading to complications such as organ damage, heart disease and stroke.
Being able to prevent these fluctuations would reduce day to day life threatening risks and the development of longer term complications.
Apollo is one of a handful of companies worldwide developing a safer and more effective alternative to insulin injection.
While insulin replacement is the traditional way to treat diabetes by controlling fluctuations in blood sugar levels, injected insulin has drawbacks. It does not mimic normal insulin secretion and inadequate usage can have serious side effects including death.
In a healthy person, the liver has a 2-4 fold higher level of insulin compared to the periphery (ie the arms and legs). In people with diabetes, this concentration difference is impossible to mimic by insulin injection. Instead of high levels of insulin in the liver, the injection delivers a large dose of insulin throughout the body, with no gradation from the periphery to the internal organs.
In contrast, Apollo’s oral insulin is believed to be capable of mimicking the natural distribution of insulin throughout body. Oral drug delivery via the gastro-intestinal route delivers the drug almost direct to the liver – and in the case of insulin delivery, this is an advantage that allows for a more effective, efficient and safe method of treatment.
In Australia approximately 1.3 million suffer from diabetes and about 80% of those affected will die early, mostly from cardiovascular disease. Diabetes costs almost $11,000 for each Australian suffering from the disease. Only 4% of this is the cost of diabetes medication – the rest covers the consequences of hospitalizations and other diseases caused by diabetes. Government subsidy of insulin totals over $100 million a year.
The potential benefit of an oral insulin is reduction of both direct and indirect health cost savings. Oral insulin has the potential not only to save lives but to save the Government billions of dollars. If oral insulin can improve on injected insulin by reducing serious risk factors there can be significant benefits for individuals and the nation. |
|
|
| click to subscribe |
|
 |
| www.apollolifesciences.com |
