Wednesday, May 18, 2011
It seems that the business websites are often the first to report the financial impact when pharmaceutical trials succeed or fail. Indeed, Ann Bartlett, once again has alerted me to the latest failure in the attempt to cure type 1 diabetes. The Diamyd trial fails to meet its primary efficacy endpoint...
Dr. Cogan,
Does anyone doing the research think about what effect the honeymoon phase has in these prospects for a cure? Are we hitching initial success on a sub group that is experiencing the honeymoon phase?
It seems to be that so much of the research in curative therapies must lie within 18 months of dx, but the irony is that the body experiences the honeymoon phase and I have to wonder if that skews the research success rate right from the beginning?
Any thoughts?
Ann: I have wondered this myself. I believe the problem lies in view of the fact the researchers are trying to preserve whatever beta cell mass remains and that translates essentially to prolong the honeymoon period as long as feasibly possible and thus measuring c-peptide production. I have always envisioned a cure to be a combination of therapies at each stage of diabetes progression: at diagnosis/early/intermediate/ and in later stages: akin to combination chemotherapy in other chronic dieases.
So, is it possible that initial success of these studies is partly due to the honeymoon period with/without the study drug?
DrC