Starting Tomorrow: The Artificial Pancreas Advocacy Campaign

Starting tomorrow, JDRF launches the Artificial Pancreas Advocacy Campaign (APAC) and you can help by adding your name to the Artificial Pancreas Petition! Click here to register to receive an update from us when we take our first step in making sure the artificial pancreas can be accessed by individuals living with diabetes, sooner than later. But first, read on for some background:

A couple of weeks back, I had talked about the Future of the Artificial Pancreas & the FDA Promise and how it was linked to a recently issued draft research guidance document for the low glucose suspend system (LGS), a technology that can help prevent hypoglycemia. (The current LGS guidance document, as noted in the JDRF’s position on FDA’s draft LGS guidance, has language that can stifle innovative research progress. Many of you also shared your view on the LGS guidance with the FDA and with us, so thanks for doing that!) Since then, a team of JDRF volunteers and staff have been thinking about what we need to do to make sure that language that prevents and/or delays access to technologies like the LGS is not part of the draft research guidance document the FDA has promised to release for the artificial pancreas (AP) on December 1 of this year.

What worries the team is how restrictive AP research guidance document could be. The risk here is that access to technologies like the AP, which could not only improve patient health but also make diabetes management much easier while reducing cost, would be impeded.

A recent study, Changes in Medicare Spending for Type 1 Diabetes With the Introduction of the Artificial Pancreas, showed that allowing the AP to hit the market sooner than later could help curve the cost of healthcare and save Medicare $2 billion over 25 years. FDA obstacles have already prevented Americans impacted by type 1 diabetes from accessing LGS, a precursor to closed-loop artificial pancreas systems, while patients in over 40 other countries like Canada, England, France, and Germany, are already benefiting from progress and innovation. FDA has a great opportunity to get back on the path of leading innovation in diabetes. However, this will require that it not only stick to its promise of a draft research guidance document for the AP on December 1 but more importantly, make sure the research guidance is forward-looking, encourages innovation, and will not be another hurdle preventing Americans living with type 1 from accessing a technology that may one day be considered the most revolutionary advance in treating type 1 diabetes since the discovery of insulin. Too many federal dollars have been invested in advancing the development of the AP, FDA please help make sure we can build on this progress and prevent waste!

You can help the FDA understand what having access to the AP will mean to those of us living with diabetes. Tomorrow you will receive an email from me asking you to sign a petition to encourage the FDA to allow access to the AP sooner than later, please take a couple of minutes to do this and also share it with your family and friends. This will be our first step in showing legislators and the FDA how much we believe in the hope that the AP holds for us, so I look forward to your support as we move the ball down the field.

To receive the petition, register here and while you’re at it, share this blog post on your favorite social media site like Facebook or Twitter.

Hasan