Technosphere could be next inhalable insulin on the market

The USA's MannKind Corp presented strong data at the 42nd annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Copenhagen, Denmark, from a Phase III clinical study of its inhaled insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes. The trial was designed to evaluate whether MannKind's Technosphere Insulin System showed similar safety and efficacy compared to patients treated with Novolog (insulin aspart), an injected rapid-acting insulin analog.

Peter Richardson, the firm's chief scientific officer, noted that the study demonstrated that patients using Technosphere Insulin achieved comparable improvements in glycemic control (HbA1c) to patients treated with the injected RAA, adding that, no adverse effects on pulmonary function were observed in either treatment group. However, unlike the injected RAA group, Technosphere Insulin patients lost weight during the treatment.

Alfred Mann, MannKind's chief executive, said that, "with the recent completion of enrollment of the major Phase III safety study, all of our pivotal Phase II trials are now well underway, suggesting that Technosphere Insulin could be the next pulmonary insulin product to reach the market."