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Episode Transcription Below (or coming soon!)
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Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and these are the top diabetes stories and headlines of the past seven days. we go live on social media first and then All sources linked up at diabetes dash connections dot com when this airs as a podcast.
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The news is brought to you by The World's Worst Diabetes Mom: Real Life Stories of Parenting a Child With Type 1 Diabetes. Winner of best new non-fiction at the American Book Fest and named a Book Authority best parenting book. Available in paperback, eBook or audio book at amazon.
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Non-profit drugmaker Civica expects to launch lower-cost versions of insulin in the United States. Civica said it would produce three copycat versions of insulin, and make them available at roughly the same price for all customers, once approved by U.S. health regulators.
The company's products, which would be available as both vials and pre-filled pens, are biosimilars to Sanofi Lantus, Eli Lilly's Humalog and Novo Nordisk's Novolog. The maximum price would be no more than $30 per vial and no more than $55 for a box of five pen cartridges. Civica, which was launched by seven health groups to make essential medicines available at affordable prices, expects to file for regulatory approval in 2023 with products available in 2024.
https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/civica-aims-to-launch-low-cost-insulin-in-us-by-2024-100701260/
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Tandem has issued an urgent field safety notice. This in Europe ONLY and is for the t-slim X2 pumps with Basil IQ technology. According to the notice, a user could inadvertently program and confirm a basal rate with an incorrectly placed decimal point. That could mean giving too much or too little insulin. Tandem says you can continue to use the pump after confirming basal rates are correct. A software update is coming. Again, this is Europe only and this is NOT an issue for any pumps on Control IQ
https://www.drugdeliverybusiness.com/tandem-diabetes-warns-on-some-tslim-x2-insulin-pumps/?fbclid=IwAR0dV04W49iQ1LavAIQMkpleif77XiVqKq7ZrhUiFTrpylem-ZHIByRN8nw
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Interesting new potential treatment for diabetic retinopathy. Retinopathy happens when the disease damages tiny blood vessels in the eye, reducing blood flow to nerve cells in the retina. Treatment can be injections or laser surgery. These scientists are looking at photo-bio-modulation – which involves irradiating the eye with far-red to near-infrared light. This increases oxygen-rich blood flow to the retinal cells. They use an LED contact lens to get the light exactly where its needed. No human tests yet.. so it’s a far way off.
https://newatlas.com/medical/led-contact-lens-diabetes-blindness/
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I don’t have much of an update about diabetes aid to Ukraine except that it’s still very much needed. If you’re so inclined, we’ll link up where you can donate. One partnership I didn’t mention last week is one between the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, a group called Direct Relief, and the International Diabetes Federation. They are working closely together to understand where supplies are short, secure donations within and deliver them quickly to where they’re needed. Lots of links to vetted organizations in the show notes and here on our fb page.
https://sparearose.org/
https://www.jdrf.org/blog/2022/03/02/helping-the-diabetes-community-in-ukraine/
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The ordinary blood pressure medication verapamil continues to show benefits in treating type 1 diabetes. Patients taking verapamil required less insulin two years after their type 1 diagnosis and also showed evidence of other surprising benefits. These researchers caution that their study is small and needs to be confirmed by larger clinical studies. There are a few other going on right now.. but the preservation of some beta cell function is very promising.
https://www.uab.edu/news/research/item/12670-an-oral-medication-shows-benefits-treating-type-1-diabetes-for-at-least-two-years-after-diagnosis
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Two pieces of good news about insurance coverage. Our friends in Ontario, Canada will finally get CGM coverage. Starting March 14th the Assistive Deices Program will cover funding for a CGM and related supplies for people with type 1 .
https://www.baytoday.ca/local-news/people-with-type-1-diabetes-to-get-government-funding-for-real-time-continuous-glucose-monitors-5126997
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And in the US military families will have pharmacy coverage for Abbott’s Free Style Libre 2 under Tricare Health. This should make the Flash Glucose Monitor available with zero copay to Tricare members. It begins next month.
https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/military-members-families-and-retirees-get-simplified-access-to-abbott-s-freestyle-libre-2-system-through-tricare-
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Bringing some awareness of how common a misdiagnosis is when an adult has type 1 diabetes.. professional golfer JJ Spaun is speaking up. He was diagnosed with type 2 but after a couple of years of struggling he found the right doctor and the right diagnosis. He next plays in the Players Championship this weekend we’ll see if we can spot the Libre on his arm.
https://www.golfchannel.com/news/after-diabetes-misdiagnosis-jj-spaun-feeling-new-person
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Our long format episode this week is all about Pixar’s Turning Red. There are two background characters in the movie with diabetes and we’ve got the behind the scenes story why.
Next week: why the star trek community pushed a T1D kickstarter campaign over the top.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.