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Israeli Company Plans to Make Insulin Injections Obsolete

(Weizmann Institute of Science) Israeli biopharmaceutical company Kadimastem hopes to revolutionize diabetes treatment and make needles a thing of the past for insulin-dependent patients by creating an in-body device that creates insulin on its own. Overall, the global insulin-dependent population stands at over 100 million people. Implanting healthy islet cells in people with diabetes was found to free them from insulin injections, but it relied on organ donations and required the suppression of patients' immune systems so they wouldn't reject the new cells. Instead of having people waiting for organ donations, Kadimastem plans on independently creating the necessary cells from human embryonic stem cells. Kfir Molakandov, Kadimastem's diabetes project manager, says they have a device under development to prevent rejection of cells by the immune system. "It might be that they'll have to replace these devices once a year or once in two years." That's a far cry from current daily injections.
2019-03-01 00:00:00
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