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Posted by Steve K. on 15:49:49 2004/02/22
In Reply to: Re: Dr. Vinik's Discussion on Diabetes Station posted by Alan F. Bachrach, M.D.
It's my understanding that INGAP has only been tried on smaller animals so far, right? INGAP works by causing the pancreas to grow new islet cells, similar to what took place in our bodies before we were born. Well, if you compare the gestational period of a human to the gestational period of the animals that have been cured so far (mice & dogs, I believe) they aren't the same. So why should the cure take the exact same amount of time?
What Dr. Vinik said is that they are looking for "trends" from this phase of clinical trials. Meaning they want to see the long term effect of different dosages. Then they'll use this information to alter the the parameters for the next round of clinical trials. He said in a previous chat that they were able to go from a 30-40% success rate to an 80-90% success rate by increasing the dosage in animal trials.
I'm not trying to sound overly optimistic. But the facts so far are that INGAP is present in humans & other animals whenever there is islet neogenesis, plus INGAP has worked to cure diabetes in other animals. Why shouldn't we expect the results for a cure in humans to be similarly successful?
Steve
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