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Exubera Blows It


Oct 31, 2007

Exubera, the inhalable insulin, has been, to speak bluntly, a real bomb. Pretty much the entire diabetic population can say with honesty that they never inhaled.

Now Pfizer, the drug's manufacturer, has taken a deep breath, closed down the Indiana plant where Exubera was made, said goodbye to $2.8 billion dollars, and placed about 700 workers on paid leave.

The company is returning its Exubera rights to Nektar, its partner in the Exubera debacle, and will work with doctors over the next three months to switch Exubera patients to other diabetes treatments.

As far as another inhalable insulin? Don't hold your breath. Way back in June of 1998, Diabetes Health editor-in-chief Scott King told the Wall Street Journal, "I don't think anyone understands the lungs enough to use them as another pathway to take medicine, except maybe with a lung condition like asthma. I'd be very cautious and see how Phase II and Phase III come out." Apparently he was right.

Source: Forbes; Reuters, October 2007

Categories: Asthma, Diabetes, Diabetes, Insulin, Professional Issues, Type 1 Issues

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Oct 31, 2007

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