I know you've always wondered what a diabetes drug might do to a nondiabetic. Riddle solved for this drug- nothing. Dia-B Tech Limited, a Melbourne-based biotech, released results from a medical trial for a new treatment for type 2 diabetes that show it is safe for use in humans without diabetes.
The drug makes a patient's own insulin work better. The insulin sensitizing factor known as compound ISF402 attaches itself to insulin and helps break it down to a more useable form This is a great concept - and one that is fashioned fully in a bitter melon. However, let's give the Aussie biotech the spotlight. Bitter melon is not for the faint of heart - it has teeth!
The study included 24 healthy male volunteers given the treatment and it showed no adverse health effects. If it did not have any effect on healthy individuals - why call it a drug? Call it gum or something mundane. They may have to come up with a whole new category of drug that has no influence in healthy individuals. Maybe they should call it a biologically indifferent agent. Sounds like it still qualifies for a copay, right?
The company now plans to check the treatment's safety on 16 volunteers with type 2 diabetes. The company expects the safety trials to be completed mid-year and then plans to begin a larger trial to find out if the treatment works.











1.
http://www.thediabetesblog.com/2007/04/05/higher-or-lower-how-do-you-like-it/#comments
post #5
Posted at 4:38PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Nicholas Dynes Gracey