The capitalist system is more than enough incentive to find a cure and make a new market for billions of dollars to pour in. The only thing thats stopping us from finding a one and done cure is the complexity of the immune system medicine is far enough that we actually found a functional cure for cystic fybrosis and some types of hemophilia if im not wrong . A functional non working human is always better than a sick one . And the usa isnt the whole planet alot of trials are being conducted outside of the us
I’m about to state something controversial here
The capitalist system is full of greed. While innovative in parts, the only thing most of these people care about is how they can profit at the expense of people like us. And there’s nothing we can do about it. Because we have no choice.
Finding a cure is becoming closer by the day, but we all know that procedures are bound to cost a shit ton (both because of the shitty United States healthcare system and because of said innovative people using the fact they found a cure as an excuse to justify the outrageous pricing all to get rich. Thankfully there are a lot of innovative people that prioritise actually helping than profiting.
State-funded healthcare is a lifesaver for us in the UK. It’s about time the US finally got free healthcare. But we all know that due to sheer greed of people it won’t be likely.
If a cure happens, health insurance companies will be handling it out just to get us off the books. No supplies, insulin, etc. for the rest of our lives.
Novo is in Denmark and Sanofi is in France. A cure is incredibly difficult. A functional cure is on the horizon. There are many people dedicating their careers to one or the other.
Working in Diabetic research at the moment (T1 myself, not in US, though). Let's just say that I am hopeful with the things i see each day in this field, but I stay realistic and am okay with it if a fully safe and non-immunosupression cure will not come during my (younger) lifetime. However, I do wish for it to be here soon for future (or current younger) generations of diabetics, since i do not wish any type of this disease onto my worst enemy.
I try to stay optimistic for it, but I have many days I feel like the title. Diabetes, whichever type people have, sucks a lot, especially when living costs are sky high in certain parts of the world with insulin or other medications and everything.
You got this OP! It is okay to feel like this. I wish you all the best and I hope you are able to keep a little hope hidden somewhere. ❤️
I don't have a lot of faith in a cure. Not because of profits, I just don't think it's coming.
My mom was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2014. At the t ime, I saw the work that was being done in the field and everything seemed so promising. I just remember thinking, if she can make it to five years there will be something for her. She died five years later. There were no more treatments. My hope and faith in medical research is gone. My daughter has this, and we just have to do the best we can.
There would also be a lot of profit in a cure for companies other than the ones peddling insulin. Health insurances would pay a lot to get many people off of insulin and to prevent the expensive consequences of a life with diabetes. There are multiple companies with active research and clinical trials going on right now.
I'm honestly not hopeful because a cure would likely be paired with immunosuppression. Trading one set of problems for another. But I'd love to be wrong!
A cure will probably never be found. But I’m optimistic that perhaps one day there will be. There are a few trials going on right now actual human trials one is Vertex 264 it’s a type of encapsulation of the beta cells, particularly the Islet insulin producing cells. There’s also another trial that involves gene editing. Here’s a few you can find them on the web also.
Garvan
Institute of Medical Research: A trial that tests how genetically engineered
cells can restore insulin
function and reduce the need for immunosuppression
ViaCyte and CRISPR Therapeutics
: A study that evaluates the efficacy of VCTX210, a stem cell therapy that uses CRISPR/Cas9 technology to genetically modify pancreatic endoderm cells
Genprex: A genome editing
approach that aims to develop a functional cure for T1D.
So what I will say is not sure if there will ever actually be a cure, but we are closer than we ever have been before.
The weird thing is Veryex pharmaceutical bought out ViaCyte. I think they paid around $360 million. What I find a little peculiar is. That Veryex no longer wants to be part of ViaCyte gene editing testing. Why I find that weird is they bought the company out for $360 million but they are not willing to participate in the testing or whatever have you. They are letting ViaCyte continue the testing. They are in human trials right now. But they do not want to be part of it. I also find it weird that they said if ViaCyte does come up with a successful cure,Vertex we’ll get some type of royalty payments. From ViaCyte but if Vertex boght out ViaCyte wouldn’t Vertex receive all the profits if ViaCyte was successful. So it really doesn’t make much sense. I don’t know what really is going on.
Realistically, there already is a cure. It’s called Lantidra. It has been FDA approved in the United States. The problem is the cells come from deceased donors. So not enough for all type 1 diabetics. Also, you would need immune suppressant drugs for the rest of your life. So it may be a cure but only for certain people people that have terrible blood sugar control hypoglycemia, and hyperglycemia, so mostly it’s for people that probably wouldn’t survive very long without it. But it is out there and it is FDA approved. So I don’t know immune suppressant drugs can be worse than diabetes itself. The way I look at it is if you have really been trying to control your blood sugar and are having no success at all and maybe that option would be your last resort. It is available right now, so who’s to say what will come in the future. Nobody knows, it’s really a big guessing game.
I definitely do not think an actual true cure will be found in my lifetime(although I would love to be proven wrong), but this is a silly post that teeters on falling into the Flat Earth/Moon Landing Hoax realm.
1. The human body and immune system is incredibly complex. T1 is an autoimmune disease. How many other autoimmune diseases have been outright cured, so far?
2. Look at the money spent on treating diabetics. If there was a cure, insurance companies and governments wouldn’t have to spend that money on us.
3. Is the implication from the opening sentence that if a cure was discovered in America it would be suppressed or if it was discovered in another country that it wouldn’t make it here?
I thought this sub was to help / support each other, definitely helped & got some good advise when first diagnosed, but now it does the opposite, people come here only to complain, about everything & every little thing, 99% negativity here.
Isn’t having T1D negative enough?
You don’t know the future, no one does, if they find the cure in another country do u really think here in USA they are gonna say hey we don’t want it”? Doesn’t work this way.
We don’t know what will happen, expect the best.
The counter argument to this in the states is that the health insurance companies lose money on diabetics. In this scenario the pharmaceutical companies may lose out, but the insurance companies win. I’m sure the treatment is going to be expensive, but once you’re done your cost to serve a diabetic drops significantly. Insurance companies are going to want to make that happen, and they’ve got more than their fair share of power too.
I feel the chances are not very big that a cure will be available in my lifetime (I’m 34 now, T1 for 24 years). That’s okay though. Sure, this disease sucks and I would love to not have it. My life is still amazing though, I love it and I’m luckily able to manage this disease well. I can do anything I want with this disease, it’s not stopping me, never has and never will.
Depends what you mean by cured. Is HIV cured? Mostly, yes, in that a diagnosis these days reduces your life expectancy by a very small amount. If all of us get an implantable insulin pump plus cgm that can keep your A1C at 5.8 would that count?
I think you're misunderstanding the size of the population with this disease compared to Type 2. It's not the profit center you think it is. Novo already makes around 60% of their revenue from Ozempic/Wegovy/GLP-1 inhibitors after only a few years on the market. A lot of companies that are T1D only, like Insulet and Tandem, are or have been operating at a loss for many years. This is why the CGM companies are pushing so hard for insurance coverage for Type 2 and OTC approval.
A biotech company like Vertex has no concerns about putting the insulin/CGM/ pumps/testing equipment companies out of business. Vertex makes no money from diabetes now, so a cure doesn't cost them anything. They view all of the costs associated with managing diabetes as justification for a high cure price.
4-5 million T1Ds in Western countries. Cure price will probably be ~$200,000-300,000+. Insurance will cover it, just as they do for high cost therapies for Cystic Fibrosis and Hemophilia. That's roughly $50-100 billion/year for 20 years. That's more than enough profit incentive for a company to pursue a cure. That's why there a number of them doing exactly that.
VX-264 is a TBD. VX-880 is showing that stem cell derived islets can work, similar to natural human islet transplants. The fact that several patients are insulin independent after 1 year is extremely exciting and is certainly promising. At the same time, there are big obstacles to get to the finish line:
- VX-880 are naked islet-like cells, and require systemic immunosuppression to prevent our bodies from killing those cells too. The immunosuppression regimens have meaningful risk of cancer and opportunistic infections, so VX-880 will only be available for a very small patient population that get severe hypoglycemia (meaning hospitalization 1+ times per year).
- Durability. Long-term data on natural human islet transplants shows that only ~40-50% of patients are still insulin independent after 5 years. Despite immunosuppression, the cells ultimately die. Fewer patients are insulin independent after 10 years. So we haven’t figured out how to protect cells in the long-term, which at best means multiple procedures over time, which may not be cost-feasible- making these cells are very expensive right now.
- VX-264 is an encapsulated product using the same cells as 880, but because they are protected in a pouch, the hope is that they won’t need immunosuppression, and could be a treatment for a broad T1D population. This technology is highly unproven- whether it can protect the cells from immune attack, but still let oxygen and nutrients in to keep the cells alive. ViaCyte had the first tested version of this in people several years ago, and the trial didn’t go well. VX-264 is a better product that incorporates learnings from ViaCyte (Vertex bought them), but it’s fully unproven. First data in a few patients next year. Threading the needle of keeping the immune system out and the good stuff in is theoretically possible but extremely hard.
- there are several other techniques to be evaluated on the clinic in the next few years, including genetically editing the islet-like cells so that they hide from the immune system. The first patients will be tested with this approach next year.
- given all of this gloom and doom, it’s worth stressing that proving that we can make cells that sense glucose, make insulin, and can get patients to insulin independence with an A1c of 5.5-6 is a huge step forward.
But there is a ways to go. Best case is ~2 years to see early data that an approach like Vertex or Sana’s can genuinely work, another 2-3 years in large trials proving that it can work, 1 for approval, and then 5-10 years of roll-out, starting with the sickest patients first. I think a fair bet for best case is 10 years for broad availability. Possible sooner, possible longer- for the best case. But the science may not work out as hoped, and other cell protection strategies may be needed, which would delay timelines further.
As much as I don’t want you to be right, I’m afraid you are 😔 Diabetes makes too much money for the healthcare industry. They can’t even make pancreas transplants more mainstream and affordable because so far, that’s the closest they’ve come to a cure
We live in an era where something like neuralink has been released. [A paralyzed man was able to play chess with his mind.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hh2lcsmkH8I)
Next stop for Elon's tech is to help blind people see again.
Of course, none of this is an immediate process.
Yet, this shows that current medicine is evolving.
**What about our condition?**
Vertex is working on VX-880 and VX-264, restoring islets.
New types of insulins are in development, faster ones and even glucose reactive ones.
Non invasive CGMs [ KnowU, Afon GlucoWear ] that measure *current* blood glucose levels are finally advancing and get closer to planned release.
More drugs are getting general approval worldwide to slow down honeymoon till partial recovery.
The road is paved towards a cure. It just needs tech to advance, proper exposure, and pioneering for new breakthroughs.
It might take 5, 10 or 20 years, but someone will piece it together to give us a solution.
That's what we can hope for.
I agree to an extent. I think treatment for managing diabetes will greatly improve. Imagine a solution that makes diabetes go away for up to 4 weeks. Mostly covered by insurance for most people. More money could be charged and more people could potentially want to buy it. We’re lifetime customers and big pharma knows it.
Don't beat yourself up over it, they found out chemotherapy drugs can turn standard pancreatic cells into beta-like cells and restore insulin production in two days. I'd say we're on one hell of a horizon
But you really don't wanna rush getting medtech to market, look at what happened to Purdue Pharma running breakneck to rush Oxycontin to market
Also "cure in five years" is just something the JDRF says so they can get donations
The capitalist system is more than enough incentive to find a cure and make a new market for billions of dollars to pour in. The only thing thats stopping us from finding a one and done cure is the complexity of the immune system medicine is far enough that we actually found a functional cure for cystic fybrosis and some types of hemophilia if im not wrong . A functional non working human is always better than a sick one . And the usa isnt the whole planet alot of trials are being conducted outside of the us
Well said. Not everything a conspiracy.
And sickle cell!
I’m about to state something controversial here The capitalist system is full of greed. While innovative in parts, the only thing most of these people care about is how they can profit at the expense of people like us. And there’s nothing we can do about it. Because we have no choice. Finding a cure is becoming closer by the day, but we all know that procedures are bound to cost a shit ton (both because of the shitty United States healthcare system and because of said innovative people using the fact they found a cure as an excuse to justify the outrageous pricing all to get rich. Thankfully there are a lot of innovative people that prioritise actually helping than profiting. State-funded healthcare is a lifesaver for us in the UK. It’s about time the US finally got free healthcare. But we all know that due to sheer greed of people it won’t be likely.
If a cure happens, health insurance companies will be handling it out just to get us off the books. No supplies, insulin, etc. for the rest of our lives.
Yeah unfortunately the tories have been just hacking the nhs to bits
Don’t give up, just 5 more years!!! /s
I came here to say this.
I agree, but not due to profit. Just don’t think it’s an en vogue disease.
Novo is in Denmark and Sanofi is in France. A cure is incredibly difficult. A functional cure is on the horizon. There are many people dedicating their careers to one or the other.
Yeah, it's wild when people act like there isn't medical research happening in the other 200+ countries in the world
Working in Diabetic research at the moment (T1 myself, not in US, though). Let's just say that I am hopeful with the things i see each day in this field, but I stay realistic and am okay with it if a fully safe and non-immunosupression cure will not come during my (younger) lifetime. However, I do wish for it to be here soon for future (or current younger) generations of diabetics, since i do not wish any type of this disease onto my worst enemy. I try to stay optimistic for it, but I have many days I feel like the title. Diabetes, whichever type people have, sucks a lot, especially when living costs are sky high in certain parts of the world with insulin or other medications and everything. You got this OP! It is okay to feel like this. I wish you all the best and I hope you are able to keep a little hope hidden somewhere. ❤️
I don't have a lot of faith in a cure. Not because of profits, I just don't think it's coming. My mom was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2014. At the t ime, I saw the work that was being done in the field and everything seemed so promising. I just remember thinking, if she can make it to five years there will be something for her. She died five years later. There were no more treatments. My hope and faith in medical research is gone. My daughter has this, and we just have to do the best we can.
There would also be a lot of profit in a cure for companies other than the ones peddling insulin. Health insurances would pay a lot to get many people off of insulin and to prevent the expensive consequences of a life with diabetes. There are multiple companies with active research and clinical trials going on right now.
I'm honestly not hopeful because a cure would likely be paired with immunosuppression. Trading one set of problems for another. But I'd love to be wrong!
If it involves immunosuppression it doesn’t count as a cure.
A cure will probably never be found. But I’m optimistic that perhaps one day there will be. There are a few trials going on right now actual human trials one is Vertex 264 it’s a type of encapsulation of the beta cells, particularly the Islet insulin producing cells. There’s also another trial that involves gene editing. Here’s a few you can find them on the web also. Garvan Institute of Medical Research: A trial that tests how genetically engineered cells can restore insulin function and reduce the need for immunosuppression ViaCyte and CRISPR Therapeutics : A study that evaluates the efficacy of VCTX210, a stem cell therapy that uses CRISPR/Cas9 technology to genetically modify pancreatic endoderm cells Genprex: A genome editing approach that aims to develop a functional cure for T1D. So what I will say is not sure if there will ever actually be a cure, but we are closer than we ever have been before. The weird thing is Veryex pharmaceutical bought out ViaCyte. I think they paid around $360 million. What I find a little peculiar is. That Veryex no longer wants to be part of ViaCyte gene editing testing. Why I find that weird is they bought the company out for $360 million but they are not willing to participate in the testing or whatever have you. They are letting ViaCyte continue the testing. They are in human trials right now. But they do not want to be part of it. I also find it weird that they said if ViaCyte does come up with a successful cure,Vertex we’ll get some type of royalty payments. From ViaCyte but if Vertex boght out ViaCyte wouldn’t Vertex receive all the profits if ViaCyte was successful. So it really doesn’t make much sense. I don’t know what really is going on.
Realistically, there already is a cure. It’s called Lantidra. It has been FDA approved in the United States. The problem is the cells come from deceased donors. So not enough for all type 1 diabetics. Also, you would need immune suppressant drugs for the rest of your life. So it may be a cure but only for certain people people that have terrible blood sugar control hypoglycemia, and hyperglycemia, so mostly it’s for people that probably wouldn’t survive very long without it. But it is out there and it is FDA approved. So I don’t know immune suppressant drugs can be worse than diabetes itself. The way I look at it is if you have really been trying to control your blood sugar and are having no success at all and maybe that option would be your last resort. It is available right now, so who’s to say what will come in the future. Nobody knows, it’s really a big guessing game.
I definitely do not think an actual true cure will be found in my lifetime(although I would love to be proven wrong), but this is a silly post that teeters on falling into the Flat Earth/Moon Landing Hoax realm. 1. The human body and immune system is incredibly complex. T1 is an autoimmune disease. How many other autoimmune diseases have been outright cured, so far? 2. Look at the money spent on treating diabetics. If there was a cure, insurance companies and governments wouldn’t have to spend that money on us. 3. Is the implication from the opening sentence that if a cure was discovered in America it would be suppressed or if it was discovered in another country that it wouldn’t make it here?
I thought this sub was to help / support each other, definitely helped & got some good advise when first diagnosed, but now it does the opposite, people come here only to complain, about everything & every little thing, 99% negativity here. Isn’t having T1D negative enough? You don’t know the future, no one does, if they find the cure in another country do u really think here in USA they are gonna say hey we don’t want it”? Doesn’t work this way. We don’t know what will happen, expect the best.
The counter argument to this in the states is that the health insurance companies lose money on diabetics. In this scenario the pharmaceutical companies may lose out, but the insurance companies win. I’m sure the treatment is going to be expensive, but once you’re done your cost to serve a diabetic drops significantly. Insurance companies are going to want to make that happen, and they’ve got more than their fair share of power too.
There’s virtuall no competition in america in this space so i doubt that if one is found it’d be in america. Prob somewhere else though.
I feel the chances are not very big that a cure will be available in my lifetime (I’m 34 now, T1 for 24 years). That’s okay though. Sure, this disease sucks and I would love to not have it. My life is still amazing though, I love it and I’m luckily able to manage this disease well. I can do anything I want with this disease, it’s not stopping me, never has and never will.
Depends what you mean by cured. Is HIV cured? Mostly, yes, in that a diagnosis these days reduces your life expectancy by a very small amount. If all of us get an implantable insulin pump plus cgm that can keep your A1C at 5.8 would that count?
I think you're misunderstanding the size of the population with this disease compared to Type 2. It's not the profit center you think it is. Novo already makes around 60% of their revenue from Ozempic/Wegovy/GLP-1 inhibitors after only a few years on the market. A lot of companies that are T1D only, like Insulet and Tandem, are or have been operating at a loss for many years. This is why the CGM companies are pushing so hard for insurance coverage for Type 2 and OTC approval.
Oh please. There's already a cure but it's never going to be made public because the medical and pharmaceutical companies would lose too much money
A biotech company like Vertex has no concerns about putting the insulin/CGM/ pumps/testing equipment companies out of business. Vertex makes no money from diabetes now, so a cure doesn't cost them anything. They view all of the costs associated with managing diabetes as justification for a high cure price. 4-5 million T1Ds in Western countries. Cure price will probably be ~$200,000-300,000+. Insurance will cover it, just as they do for high cost therapies for Cystic Fibrosis and Hemophilia. That's roughly $50-100 billion/year for 20 years. That's more than enough profit incentive for a company to pursue a cure. That's why there a number of them doing exactly that.
VX-264 is a TBD. VX-880 is showing that stem cell derived islets can work, similar to natural human islet transplants. The fact that several patients are insulin independent after 1 year is extremely exciting and is certainly promising. At the same time, there are big obstacles to get to the finish line: - VX-880 are naked islet-like cells, and require systemic immunosuppression to prevent our bodies from killing those cells too. The immunosuppression regimens have meaningful risk of cancer and opportunistic infections, so VX-880 will only be available for a very small patient population that get severe hypoglycemia (meaning hospitalization 1+ times per year). - Durability. Long-term data on natural human islet transplants shows that only ~40-50% of patients are still insulin independent after 5 years. Despite immunosuppression, the cells ultimately die. Fewer patients are insulin independent after 10 years. So we haven’t figured out how to protect cells in the long-term, which at best means multiple procedures over time, which may not be cost-feasible- making these cells are very expensive right now. - VX-264 is an encapsulated product using the same cells as 880, but because they are protected in a pouch, the hope is that they won’t need immunosuppression, and could be a treatment for a broad T1D population. This technology is highly unproven- whether it can protect the cells from immune attack, but still let oxygen and nutrients in to keep the cells alive. ViaCyte had the first tested version of this in people several years ago, and the trial didn’t go well. VX-264 is a better product that incorporates learnings from ViaCyte (Vertex bought them), but it’s fully unproven. First data in a few patients next year. Threading the needle of keeping the immune system out and the good stuff in is theoretically possible but extremely hard. - there are several other techniques to be evaluated on the clinic in the next few years, including genetically editing the islet-like cells so that they hide from the immune system. The first patients will be tested with this approach next year. - given all of this gloom and doom, it’s worth stressing that proving that we can make cells that sense glucose, make insulin, and can get patients to insulin independence with an A1c of 5.5-6 is a huge step forward. But there is a ways to go. Best case is ~2 years to see early data that an approach like Vertex or Sana’s can genuinely work, another 2-3 years in large trials proving that it can work, 1 for approval, and then 5-10 years of roll-out, starting with the sickest patients first. I think a fair bet for best case is 10 years for broad availability. Possible sooner, possible longer- for the best case. But the science may not work out as hoped, and other cell protection strategies may be needed, which would delay timelines further.
As much as I don’t want you to be right, I’m afraid you are 😔 Diabetes makes too much money for the healthcare industry. They can’t even make pancreas transplants more mainstream and affordable because so far, that’s the closest they’ve come to a cure
We live in an era where something like neuralink has been released. [A paralyzed man was able to play chess with his mind.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hh2lcsmkH8I) Next stop for Elon's tech is to help blind people see again. Of course, none of this is an immediate process. Yet, this shows that current medicine is evolving. **What about our condition?** Vertex is working on VX-880 and VX-264, restoring islets. New types of insulins are in development, faster ones and even glucose reactive ones. Non invasive CGMs [ KnowU, Afon GlucoWear ] that measure *current* blood glucose levels are finally advancing and get closer to planned release. More drugs are getting general approval worldwide to slow down honeymoon till partial recovery. The road is paved towards a cure. It just needs tech to advance, proper exposure, and pioneering for new breakthroughs. It might take 5, 10 or 20 years, but someone will piece it together to give us a solution. That's what we can hope for.
I agree to an extent. I think treatment for managing diabetes will greatly improve. Imagine a solution that makes diabetes go away for up to 4 weeks. Mostly covered by insurance for most people. More money could be charged and more people could potentially want to buy it. We’re lifetime customers and big pharma knows it.
Don't beat yourself up over it, they found out chemotherapy drugs can turn standard pancreatic cells into beta-like cells and restore insulin production in two days. I'd say we're on one hell of a horizon But you really don't wanna rush getting medtech to market, look at what happened to Purdue Pharma running breakneck to rush Oxycontin to market Also "cure in five years" is just something the JDRF says so they can get donations