A Calgary biotechnology company believes it can manufacture commercial levels of insulin from safflowers.
Andrew Baum, chief executive officer of Sembiosys Genetics, is confident genetically modified safflowers could produce enough human insulin to increase supplies in a tight global market and subsequently lower the price for insulin dependent diabetics.
He is collecting data before the concept moves to clinical trials on people. Sembiosys hopes to be on the market by 2010 with a global strategy.
Human insulin genes were transferred to safflowers grown on special sites in the United States and Chile.
Read Also
Europe holds promise for Canadian lentils
Pulse Canada is trying to help boost lentil consumption in Europe, which is already the fourth largest market.
“We believe that in order to address the global demand for insulin that we projected, we can do it on less than 10,000 acres of production,” Baum said.
Once it is in full production, the company hopes to find a pharmaceutical partner to supply insulin for the newly approved inhaled as well as injectable products.
Most people use a genetically modified insulin grown in vats with bacteria but it is in short supply.
Sembiosys chief scientific officer Maurice Moloney looked at the supply-demand situation for insulin with the rising number of diabetics throughout the world. He has worked with canola and now safflower to develop pharmaceuticals from the proteins found in oilseeds.
His research began in California and he continued it at the University of Calgary where he started the publicly traded Sembiosys.
American endochrinologist Robert Gelfand believes the concept can work to fill the world’s large demand for insulin.
“Any process that can do it a little more economically with less of an upfront investment is tremendously important for this whole area in a way that is different from most pharmaceuticals,” he said.
Insulin is expensive to produce and a consistent supply is needed. Only a couple large companies manufacture and sell it because of the expense.
As a physician treating diabetics, Gelfand found insulin was often the therapy of last resort because people do not want injections and doctors often try to manage the disease with lifestyle changes.
“Insulin is great therapy if it could just be delivered in a way that is more acceptable to patients,” he said.
The Canadian Diabetic Association had no comment on the biotech work, saying only that it welcomes new scientifically proven treatments. However, until this product is proven, it has no position,
said spokesperson Cassandra McAuley.
Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone secreted by the pancreas. Cells need it to remove and use glucose from the blood and produce energy.
In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin and therapy is needed. Patients with Type 2 diabetes produce insulin, but cells do not respond normally to it. Nevertheless, insulin also may be used in Type 2 diabetes to overcome the cells’ resistance to insulin.
Last January, Exubera, the first inhaled insulin treatment for diabetes, received approval from U.S. regulatory officials.
It is a dry powder formulation of insulin inhaled into the lungs through the mouth using a small, hand-held device similar to an asthma puffer.
The diabetic association estimates about two million Canadians have diabetes and that number is expected to increase to three million within a decade. About 10 percent of people have Type 1 and the number of people with Type 2 is increasing dramatically due to aging, increased obesity rates and sedentary lifestyles.
There is a growing incidence of Type 2 diabetes in children from high-risk populations.
In 2000, the World Health Organization estimated more than 177 million people had diabetes. By 2025, this figure is expected to top 300 million.
