New insulin pill on the horizon for diabetes

An insulin pill made from a chemical found in shrimp shells is being developed by Taiwanese scientists who are looking for alternatives to the daily injections faced by people with diabetes.

A BBC report said the team from the National Tsing Hua University found a nano-particle shell that can protect the drug from being destroyed by stomach acid. However, the doses currently needed to work in rat experiments far exceed those normally given to diabetics.

Insulin is needed by the body to stop the levels of sugar in the bloodstream getting too high. Diabetics cannot produce enough of this body chemical, and need to get more into their bloodstream.

Drugs which contain protein chemicals, including insulin, cannot survive exposure to stomach acid if swallowed and the only viable alternative to injections is a nasal spray.

The Taiwanese researchers discovered a way to encase the drug in a shell which would resist stomach acid and other digestive fluids and yet would be small enough to pass through the cells lining the small intestine and release their cargo into the bloodstream.