Excellent news for those afflicted by diabetes, as well as their families — on January 13th plans were announced by diabetes advocates and a company that specialises in manufacturing insulin pumps joined together to develop an artificial pancreas, effectively a system of monitors and pumps designed to manage type-1 diabetes. The Johnson and Johnson unit, Animas, was chosen by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to develop and test the new system.
Animus makes insulin pumps, and they will work in tandem with the Foundation in order to develop a wireless system that will combine devices that continuously monitor glucose levels, insulin pumps and sophisticated software. The device will effectively free diabetics from the cumbersome task of continually having to check their blood and administer insulin to themselves.
The final aim is a device capable of checking the blood all throughout the day as well as being able to deliver insulin whenever needed without requiring any action whatsoever from the patient.
The artificial pancreas would, in effect, always be many steps ahead of splitting the device in two and using either an insulin pump or a glucose monitoring system in isolation - making the necessity of having two devices strapped to the body a small price to pay.
Dr. Alan Lewis, chief executive officer and president of the Foundation, saw the development as a magical - and previously unworkable - marriage of the two devices. The devices are available today, but currently work independently of each other, he commented, adding that the magic of the new device will be the subsequent ability of the two devices to effectively talk to each other, delivering a new era in treatment for diabetes patients.
The devices are the culmination of years of work by the Foundation in conjunction with academic centres to develop a seamless system and they are now ready to translate years of research and testing into commercial development. Animus will provide the technical expertise in developing the new devices.
In type-1 diabetes, the body mistakenly destroys the pancreatic cells that make insulin. The body subsequently becomes unable to break down and use sugar, and if the condition is left untreated nerves and blood vessels are destroyed, leading to organ failure and eventually death. Even if treatment is administered patients can suffer organ damage, kidney failure and loss of vision, and in some cases can even lose limbs. The new artificial pancreas, with the help of new software that Animus will hope to test and develop, will control the pumps and ensure that blood sugar levels do not fall too low or rise too high, thereby relieving patients and their families of the continual burden of testing blood sugar levels and the need to self-administer.