Diabetes Dialogue: What Teplizumab Means for Type 1 Diabetes

In 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy, became the first person to receive insulin as a treatment for type 1 diabetes, which would forever change the prognosis of the disease from a certain death sentence to a chronic, but manageable illness.

In an almost poetic fashion, 100 years later, the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of teplizumab (Tzield) for delaying the onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes could prove to be an even more profound moment in the history of diabetes. Fewer than 70 days from the 100-year anniversary of Sir Frederick Banting’s sale of insulin and his famous “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world,”, quote, the approval has the potential to fundamentally alter the approach to type 1 diabetes in clinical settings.

Although the effects on progression to type 1 diabetes were described in phase 2 trial data published in NEJM and, later in Science Translational Medicine, the reality is such a significant change in the care continuum will likely require extensive education and re-education around the agent as well as staging of type 1 diabetes for specialists and providers within and beyond endocrinology.

In this special edition episode of Diabetes Dialogue: Technology, Therapeutics, & Real-World Perspectives, hosts Diana Isaacs, PharmD, and Natalie Bellini, DNP, break down the implications of adding an agent like teplizumab to the treatment armamentarium based on clinical trial data. During the episode, hosts also take a deep dive into type 1 diabetes staging and the role of certified diabetes care and education specialists in educating primary care and other specialties on these topics to optimize the potential of teplizumab.

Diabetes Dialogue: Technology, Therapeutics, & Real-World Perspectives is available in an audio-only format on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.