THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 17 November 2007 — The city-based Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology is getting ready to conduct clinical trials on an oral insulin preparation that it has developed and successfully experimented on mice.

Though insulin injections have been around for eighty years, an alternative method failed to emerge as insulin digests like other proteins in the food and proteins are quickly denatured.

Some of the Type 2 diabetics take medication to enhance their body’s limited ability to produce insulin and in many cases, the ability deteriorates over the time, eventually making injecting insulin necessary. The oral insulin is expected to limit further deterioration.

“The new technology is based on cutting edge science of nanotechnology,” Director of the Institute Dr. K. Mohandas said. “The technology has been transferred to the Mumbai-based US Vitamins (India) Limited and we are now getting ready to conduct clinical trials jointly. We will decide whether it should be a tablet or in a liquid form later.”

According to the American Diabetes Association, seven percent of the population has diabetes and of those who have the condition, around 28 percent take insulin.

If oral insulin passes clinical trial, insulin-dependent diabetic patients can just gobble down a tablet or syrup instead of insulin injections to keep their sugar levels under control.

India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of people with diabetes. The country now has 30 million diabetics and the number is growing and the oral insulin would be a great relief for them, he said.

With increase in obesity among children associated with sedentary lifestyles and consumption of unhealthy fast food, increasing number of adult variety of diabetes (Type 2 diabetes) is also being reported among children in Kerala. All children with diabetes are exposed to diabetic complications that affect the eye (retinopathy), nerves (neuropathy), heart and blood vessels in later life.

Dr. Mohandas said by 2020, 50 percent requirements of India’s medical devices industry would be met through indigenous production and the Institute’s Biomedical Technology Wing would be adequately strengthened to achieve the target.

Since its inception, the prestigious institute has filed 107 patents, of which 62 technologies have been transferred to the industry.

They include a mechanical heart valve, oxygenator, a rigid shell disposable device used during open-heart surgery as the artificial lung, neurosurgical implant used for the controlled drainage of the cerebrospinal fluid, ophthalmic sponge, the disposable swab to remove the blood and other fluids from the surgical site instantly without particulate shredding, concentric needle electrode and bone wax, the material used for anointing to arrest bleeding during incision of bone during surgery.

Dr. Mohandas said the institute was also in the process of developing a new artificial heart valve that would make possible MRI scans as its casing would be made of titanium instead of a cobalt-chromium alloy.

According to him, the new MRI compatible valve is expected to cost about 16,000 rupees a piece, almost the same as the present valve. The clinical trials are expected to begin this month.

For diseases causing movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease, deep brain stimulation technique had proved to be very effective and the institute is one of the few in India providing this treatment.