Pfizer drops Exubera insulin inhaler
You probably have seen the news on this from other blogs. The first I read about it today was on Scott Strumello's blog this morning.Exubera is the inhaled insulin that Pfizer has been has been working hard to get people with diabetes to use. And I've always believed this would be a hard sell. There's not enough information about the long term consequences of inhaling this very new drug. And the inhaler itself has been commonly referred to as a bong, almost from the day it was released. This is one case where getting a true design team in to think about making something acceptable for most users would have helped a lot.
Anyway, there's a lot of news out there about this cancellation and I wanted to point out some of them. The Wall Street Journal Health Blog has several interesting posts:
- Pfizer Gives Last Rites to Exubera
- Clouds Hang Over Inhaled Insulin After Exubera's Demise
- With Partners Like Pfizer, Nektar Needs Dummies
Despite what I thought about the delivery mechanism, I did like the idea of a novel form of diabetes treatment. We're treating diabetes in the same way that Banting and Best did in the 1920s. Insulin is now purer and our dosing is more accurate, but otherwise not much has changed (except for Symlin/Byetta).
I do hope that this doesn't discourage drug makers from looking at other ways to help us treat and manage our diabetes. It would be a terrible shame if this decision by Pfizer had that kind of an effect.
Labels: exubera, inhaler, insulin, pfizer
posted by Bernard @ 5:49 PM
2 Comments:
I too read that Pfizer was dropping Exubera, but I found it on a Googles diabetes search. I certainly am not interested in this product, but still I think it is a shame that money so clearly restricts how research develops. It is the "brand new idea" that often brings the most marvelous discovery, and they are often not profitable in the beginning! Furthermore, everyone was saying that by making insulin easily accessible without injections one could more easily convince T2s and other borderline diabetics to better manage their diabetes. Is that no longer important b/c it is not profitable?!
On Friday, October 18, Pfizer announced that they would no longer be producing
Exubera, the ONLY NON-INVASIVE insulin available to the public. Now, this stop in production is not due to safety concerns; it is due to Pfizer not making as
much money as they had hoped. So, Pfizer, who generates over $48 billion in revenue annually, plans to stop making a drug because it isn't making as much
money as they had hoped after only one year on the market?
The FDA approved Exubera in May 2006 and Pfizer didn't begin producing the drug full force until 2007.
My story with Exubera started over 6 months ago. I have been a Type I, insulin dependent diabetic for 24 years. I have taken on average of 4 injections a day,
which accounts to over 35,000 injections in my 32 years of life. When I heard about Exubera, I was ecstatic. I said "this is my cure". My doctor and I
decided to try it and after a few weeks of regulating it; I was very pleased and excited to lead a normal life, without 4 injections. I was able to go down to one injection a day and sent my spare bottles of insulin to a non-profit company who distributes them to those who can't afford it. I have been an Exubera user
ever since then and was shocked, angry, and heart broken when I found out from a friend, not Pfizer or Exubera, that Pfizer plans on stopping production. As I read information on why, I got angry that the reason Pfizer provides is because lack of revenue. I know Pfizer will say I have other options, but do I really? I can't have an islet cell transplant due to anti-rejection drugs; I can't take
a pill because I am insulin-dependent. My only option is to go back on 4 injections a day: to have bruised, sore arms and legs again and to have to get
up and run to the bathroom to give an injection before breakfast, lunch, and dinner or to get gawked at if I give an injection at the table in a restaurant. Exubera is my cure. I don't have the luxury of not taking insulin. I need it
to survive. This may be the closest thing to a cure that many Type I diabetics will ever see and Pfizer should not be able to just write off a medical innovation that changes so many people's lives.
Pfizer says on their web site, "That's why we at Pfizer are committed to being a
global leader in health care and to helping change millions of lives for the
better through providing access to safe, effective and affordable medicines and
related health care services to the people who need them" (Pfizer.com). Instead
of Pfizer improving my life they are taking away the ONLY non-invasive treatment
option for me and the 3 million Type I diabetics in the US.
I would love to sit down with the person who made the decision to take it off the market and give him or her 4 injections a day for a week, let alone 20
years, and see if he would change his mind.
Fight4Exubera@aol.com or http://www.myspace.com/reen910
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