There's a story running on CNN Money about the progress of Oramed Pharmaceuticals' insulin capsule, which is currently under development. The capsule, taken orally, could provide a more convenient way for diabetics to get insulin than through shots. And popping a gel cap would, needless to say, also be more convenient than toting and blowing on one of those big old clunky Exubera inhalers.

In the quest to get its product to market, Oramed needs cash, and lots of it. Answering the call, a combination of private investors are putting up more than two million dollars in financing for the Israel-based company.

It's hoped the money will help to propel the insulin capsule through completion of Phase 1 (drug safety) trials by the middle of next year. Said Oramed CEO Nadav Kidron, "This investment marks a milestone for Oramed's stability, allowing the company to fully focus on its research and development efforts and complete its phase 1 product trials."

Stay tuned.

It's still going - the TrialNet and the NIH are continuing to recruit patients for their clinical study of oral insulin to slow the onset of type 1 diabetes.

In the study, researchers are testing whether an insulin capsule taken by mouth once a day can prevent or delay diabetes in individuals at high risk for developing type 1 diabetes. An earlier trial suggested that oral insulin might delay type 1 diabetes for about four years. This was found to be true in people with autoantibodies to insulin in their blood. Some scientists think that introducing insulin via the digestive tract induces tolerance of the immune system. Insulin taken orally has no effect on glucose because the digestive system breaks it down quickly. To lower blood glucose, insulin must be injected or administered by an insulin pump.

In type 1 diabetes, a person's own immune cells destroy the beta cells of the pancreas. Beta cells sense blood glucose and produce the hormone insulin, which regulates glucose and converts it to energy. The autoantibodies causing type 1 diabtes may appear in the blood up to 10 years before diagnosis. These autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), IA-2, and to insulin itself indicate a greater risk for developing type 1 diabetes. For a person with high-risk genes and all three antibodies, the risk of developing diabetes in the next 5 years is greater than 50%.

Much effort and research has been invested in finding an alternative, less painful way, to treat patients with diabetes. For years, the only method patients had to deliver insulin was by injection. However, a team of scientists discovered a technology that has the potential to revolutionize this old school way of thinking. What if I told you a company is developing an orally ingestible soft gel insulin capsule? Naysayers, allow me to introduce you to my latest find: Oramed.

Up until now, the idea of insulin in a pill was inconceivable due to the fact that insulin, which is a protein, breaks down in the digestive system. However, Oramed's patented technology overcame the problem of digestion as well as permeability to the intestine with a few organic whistles and bells. This has been a major hurdle that has inhibited the development of orally ingestible insulin for decades. Prof. Hanoch Bar-On, a leading Diabetologist, states that the route of the insulin from the swallowed pill "imitates nature" in that it passes to the liver and then to the bloodstream. Injected insulin goes straight to the bloodstream.

Oramed Pharmaceuticals' is an Israeli based company. They received the green light from the Israeli Ministry of Health, as well as the Hadassah Medical Center Institutional Review Board for phase 1 clinical trials of oral insulin in healthy humans. Here's the million dollar question for card-carrying US citizens with type 2 diabetes taking insulin injections: if you could downshift to an easier to swallow means of managing your diabetes, would you?