quotable quotes - November 2012
“[Insulin degludec] has achieved one of perhaps the holy grails of diabetes treatment – one time a day injection of insulin.”
– Dr. Ed Hendricks (Center for Weight Management, Roseville, CA), a member of the FDA Advisory Panel on Novo Nordisk’s degludec and degludec/aspart, held November 8 in White Oak, MD. Several panel members expressed views that current basal insulins – Lantus (Sanofi’s glargine) and Levemir (Novo Nordisk’s detemir) – are not true once- per-day insulins due to their less stable glucose-lowering profiles.
“We need to be focused on patients’ perception of risk-benefit. With a new technology, you cannot expect it to be a home run on the first iteration. You must take that into account. If you don’t, you will never let it on the market, and it will never get better.”
– Dr. Jeffrey Shuren (Director, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA, Silver Spring, MD) speaking about the need to balance the risks of new technologies with the need for innovation at the 12th Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting in Bethesda, MD.
“We’re not insensitive that patients don’t want to carry a lot of devices, but we want these devices to be used safely.”
– Dr. Patricia Beaston (Center for Devices and Radiological Health, FDA, Silver Spring, MD) speaking about integration of diabetes technology with smartphones at the 12th Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting in Bethesda, MD.
“Nobody has done a [cardiovascular] trial with metformin so far, and nobody is likely to do that. [But] I think it is reasonable to think that metformin has a cardiovascular benefit.”
– Dr. Alan Garber (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX) at the 2012 Controversies to Consensus in Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension in Barcelona, Spain.
“We are injecting the right hormone, at the wrong site, in order to achieve something called physiology.”
– Dr. Andreas Pfützner (IKFE GmbH, Mainz, Germany) on the challenges of injecting insulin under the skin at the 12th Annual Diabetes Technology Meeting in Bethesda, MD.
