Today’s Wall Street Journal has a front page article on Pfizer’s decision to drop Exubera. It covers some of the history of Exubera development and also points out some of it’s shortcomings
The Exubera device, which some compared unflatteringly to a bong for smoking marijuana, could also be embarrassing to use in public.“I can teach someone how to use an insulin pen in five minutes, but it would take nearly an hour to teach a patient to use inhaled insulin,” says Anastassios Pittas, an endocrinologist at Tufts-New England Medical Center.
The article also has a pointer to a (PDF) transcript of the Pfizer conference call about its 3rd quarter earnings. The Exubera part starts on page 4 of the transcript. I’m glad to see Jeff Kindler, the Pfizer CEO say:
We remain committed to finding and developing new treatments for diabetes, which is an area of enormous unmet medical need. Our R&D portfolio in this field spans the width of the diabetes disease continuum, from genetic susceptibility at birth to the onset of devastating complications. This is also an important focus for business development. In addition, we will continue to closely monitor developments in medical practice and technology as they relate to inhalation therapies and other innovative delivery systems both for insulin and for other medicines.
Despite the problems with Exubera it was a novel treatment for diabetes that might have really helped people who fail to treat their diabetes because of their fear of injections.
And while most of us hope for and work towards a cure for diabetes, it would be nice to have new treatment options while we’re waiting.
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent health blog and their article today on Exubera had this funny photo from Pharma Giles which I reproduce below without permission.
October 19, 2007 at 2:41 pm |
About your post, Exubera is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I would much rather take a shot, than inhale something from that wacky device.
Now to answering your comments on my blog.
No I haven’t started my pump yet. This Monday I go in for training and 4 days on Saline to learn the ropes. By Friday I will be an official pumper. So I guess both of us will become 2 of the newest Cozmo users very soon! I was waiting to see what you would chose after your trial in September. No worries about that pink pump, I actually would have preferred Cozmo’s 1700 purple model. Tropical Green will do for now, though.