Home
You can view the current or previous issues of Diabetes Health online, in their entirety, anytime you want.
Click Here To View
See if you qualify for our free healthcare professional magazines. Click here to start your application for Pre-Diabetes Health, Diabetes Health Pharmacist and Diabetes Health Professional.
Latest Food Articles
Popular Food Articles
Highly Recommended Food Articles
Who Gets That Pancreas? The FDA Wonders, Too
The Food and Drug Administration is beginning to worry about how to regulate cells and organs for transplant, something that has traditionally been left to doctors to decide.
Up till now, the practice of transplantation has been considered a practice of medicine, something the FDA does not regulate.
"(Organs and cells) are not a product, not a traditional drug," said Dr. Philip Noguchi, chief of gene therapy for the FDA. "The question is when to regulate cells themselves."
The FDA oversees a limited number of cellular transplants-for example, making sure that blood and insulin are safe. But now researchers are testing animal organs in humans (xenotrans-plantation), and the use of cells for injection like medicine. The FDA is now forced to question whether these are things that transcend routine medical practice. And if they are not performed safely, are these procedures that could endanger public health?
"They have to protect the population," said Glen Spaulding, a xenotransplantation specialist at Tufts University. "It's getting more complicated very fast."
There are many trials going on right now, involving the treatment of a host of chronic illnesses. In fact, there are five companies harvesting pancreatic cells from pigs for use in islet transplants. Some companies are even creating cells by breeding animals with human genes.
"These things could take off very rapidly," Noguchi said. "We must be ready."
Noguchi said that there will be a time when doctors can mix and match cells, creating customized biological therapies for individual patients.
Categories: Food, Government & Policy, Insulin, Islet & Pancreas Transplant
You May Also Be Interested In...
Click Here To View Or Post Comments
0 comments -
Sep 1, 1995
-
Diabetes Health
Diabetes Health is the essential resource for people living with diabetes- both newly diagnosed and experienced as well as the professionals who care for them. We provide balanced expert news and information on living healthfully with diabetes. Each issue includes cutting-edge editorial coverage of new products, research, treatment options, and meaningful lifestyle issues.
-
Topics
- Diabetic / Diabetes Health
- Type 1 / 1.5 Diabetes
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Blood Glucose / Sugar
- High/Low Blood Sugar / Fast Acting Glucose
- Insulin- Pumps, Pens & Syringes
- Continuous Glucose Monitors, CGM, Infusion Sets
- Type 2 Medications
- Hyperglycemia
- Hypoglycemia
Email to a Friend
Send a link to this page to your friends and colleagues.