Czaro Strategic Communications

I wanted to let you know about some exciting developments in JDRF's research.  If successful, they will be among the most significant advances in the treatment of type 1 diabetes!
 
These partnerships will lead to a huge improvement in keeping people with type 1 diabetes healthy and lower their risk of complications.

Artificial Pancreas Project
JDRF is partnering with Animas, a Johnson & Johnson company that is a major manufacturer of insulin delivery systems, to develop a first-generation artificial pancreas system to control diabetes.
 
If successful, this would be the first step toward developing a fully automated artificial pancreas, which would be among the most significant advances in the treatment of type 1 diabetes.
 
This first-generation system will combine a blood glucose monitor, an insulin pump, and sophisticated computer software that can judge whether blood glucose levels are going above or below a targeted range and react accordingly.
 
This will be the first automated system to manage diabetes, delivering insulin if it senses blood glucose moving too high or stopping insulin delivery if it detects blood sugar is going too low. 
 
We believe it will help many more people with diabetes achieve target A1c's of 7% or lower than currently do so today. Most important, we believe it will do that with far fewer low blood sugar problems.

Insulin Delivery
JDRF and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) launched an innovative program aimed at improving the treatment of type 1 diabetes by developing novel insulin delivery products to enhance the use of insulin pumps. 
 
Through the program, JDRF will support BD's research and development of new products that deliver insulin from a pump to a patient in either an infusion set or patch-pump configuration.  Research indicates that there are significant opportunities to enhance pump therapy by improving convenience as well as minimizing pain, kinking, occlusions and site infections. An additional goal of the program is improving the speed at which insulin works. 
 
These enhancements are intended to improve how people with diabetes control their insulin therapy and have a positive impact on their overall level of glycemic control. And better control means better health outcomes for people with diabetes.
 
Constantly improving the technological tools to dispense insulin will lead to greater adoption of these methods and healthier lives.  That's why we view this collaboration with BD as vital to our goal to provide a bridge to the cure for type 1 diabetes.
 
The JDRF will invest $4.3 million in milestone-based financial support over the next few years for these projects.

Autoimmunity
Fast Forward, LLC, the commercial drug development arm of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the JDRF announced a collaborative partnership with Axxam SpA - a leading company in conducting early-stage discovery research programs for the life science industry, to develop new treatments for two automimmune diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS) and type 1 diabetes. 
 
Under the terms of the agreement, Axxam will screen its extensive chemical library to identify compounds that can target specific ion channels in the immune system. Ion channels are tiny pores on the surface of immune cells that control the influx of charged particles and allow the cells to become activated to perform their natural surveillance and protection functions. 
 
Recent studies have found that immune cells in MS and type 1 diabetes contain high levels of a specific ion channel, Kv1.3, and that the hyperactivity of this channel contributes to the dysfunction of the immune system in MS and type 1 diabetes.  If the initial research is successful, Axxam will have identified compounds that modulate Kv1.3 ion channel activities, and these will be further developed by the company as potential therapies for MS and type 1 diabetes.
 
The agreement with Axxam is the first of its kind between cross-disciplinary patient advocacy organizations and represents a new frontier in which groups such as JDRF and Fast Forward ally to lessen the risk of drug discovery and accelerate the development of new therapies that can impact multi-disorders.