Not a cure, but seems promising

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Thisis a really interesting development. It might be the pathway to a cure using an individuals stem cells to grow new Beta cells in conjunction with this treatment. That would be closer to a cure without the need for immunosuppressant drugs,

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM TREATMENT WITH TZIELD:

TZIELD is an intravenous (IV) infusion.

This means it’s given through a needle in your arm. TZIELD infusions are given once a day, for 14 days in a row, and take at least 30 minutes plus setup and monitoring time. TZIELD is a one-time treatment.

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It looks like a whole load of AI generated stuff off the original BBC News post:

Then here, from February:

So back to 2022 (in the US this time):

So it’s been available in the US since 2022; it’s a “monoclonal antibody”.

The curious thing about it is that it is being marketed as a delaying tactic; delaying the onset of T1 by two or three years. Yet it seems that for many people the onset is much slower than that anyway, particularly LADA. My cynical brain thinks that they are just selling statistics.

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The daughter of one of my diabetic friends, who has had T1 antibodies for a number of years, was recently treated with TZield. It was insanely expensive, but they did get their insurance to cover it. Shortly after the treatment, she hit the point where she needed to start insulin (a small amount of basal), which is not what they hoped for, but they are hoping that this will allow her to remain on just the small dose of basal for a long time. Fingers crossed.

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Here’s a summary of the UK regulatory authorities approach so far:

It was licensed in the US in 2022 but then things are licensed in the US regardless of cost; most of the process seems to involve maxims along the lines of, “Does it kill the patient, does it use illegal drugs.”

The UK approach is cost based, which means that the proponents will have to demonstrate a statistically significant result in at least one area (like slowing down T1 in LADA). From the diabetes.uk summary it seems like a possible application is your friend; slowing down the loss of beta cells might be worth the insane expense.

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