As the world marks the discovery of insulin by Sir Frederick Banting on November 14's World Diabetes Day, the "global epidemic of diabetes," according to the World Health Organization (WHO), continues to impact people of all ages, especially children.
Amidst the prevailing gloom, scientists are developing a vaccine to control blood sugar levels in the bloodstream. "We are actually working on a vaccine for type 1 diabetes," said Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk.
Insulin, a pancreatic hormone, helps regulate blood sugar in the human body, which causes type 1 and type 2 diabetes. While those suffering from the former cannot produce enough insulin, people having the latter don't respond to the insulin.
The vaccine will help in the treatment of type 1 diabetes – an autoimmune disease – in which the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas are wrongly detected as foreign and get destroyed by the immune system. According to estimates, nearly 98,200 children under 15 years develop type 1 diabetes worldwide annually.
"The main role of the vaccine would be to suppress this autoimmunity to prevent damage to beta cells and the pancreas. Therefore, this vaccine can effectively suppress auto immunity, thereby preventing and delaying the development of type 1 diabetes," said Thomsen.
But a considerable number of children are also suffering from type 2 diabetes, leaving governments and health professionals worried. Rising obesity among children has been blamed for the early onset of the disease.
More than 463 million people have diabetes, with 80 percent of them residing in low-income and middle- income countries with limited access to health care. Last year, 4.2 million people died because of health complications triggered by diabetes, said the WHO.
On average, diabetes reduces life expectancy in middle-aged people by four to 10 years, increasing the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and cancer by nearly three times. Diabetes is among the leading causes of non-traumatic leg and foot amputations and blindness, especially among working-age people.
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the WHO created World Diabetes Day to mark the birthday of Sir Frederick Banting on November 14 and raise awareness about the disease.
China has the highest number of people with diabetes worldwide, with around 116 million people suffering from the disease.
Without urgent action to reduce lifestyle risk factors like unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity, that number is expected to increase to 150 million by 2040 – with major health, social and economic consequences, warned the WHO.
As a part of expanding diabetes research in China, Novo Nordisk announced an expansion to their "China Essentials" plan to version 2.0 at the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. Under the plan, multiple innovative drugs would be launched in the Chinese market, and from 2025 nearly 90 percent of new drug applications are aimed to be submitted simultaneously.
"China is one of Novo Nordisk's most important markets, and we will continue to develop in China to serve more Chinese people with diabetes, and through 'China Essentials 2.0', help bring Chinese innovation to the world," said Christine Zhou, president of Region China, Novo Nordisk.
