In the News... Medtronic recall, Inhaled insulin for kids, T1D adults called "forgotten population" and more!

It's "In the News..." the only LIVE diabetes newscast! Top stories this week: Medtronic expands its insulin pump recall, Afrezza inhaled insulin pediatric studies to begin, new report says adults w/T1D are a "Forgotten population," new research into type 2 diabetes and statins and more!

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Episode transcript below:

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. As always, I’m going to link up my sources in the Facebook comments – where we are live – and in the show notes at d-c dot com when this airs as a podcast.. so you can read more if you want, on your own schedule.
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In the News is brought to you by Real Good Foods! Find their Entrée Bowls and all of their great products in your local grocery store, Target or Costco.
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Our top story this week.. Medtronic has expanded a recall of its MiniMed 600 series insulin pumps to include nearly half a million devices. This is an FDA Class One recall – the most serious type – because the pumps may deliver incorrect insulin doses.
The recall was first announced in 2019 for just two models. Medtronic now says it will replace any MiniMed 600 series insulin pump that has a clear retainer ring with one that has the updated black retainer ring at no charge. That’s even if there is no damaged and regardless of the warranty status of the pump.
There’s more to this – including directions on how to check if your pump may be affected and who to call. I’ll put all of that here in the FB comments and in the show notes.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-10-05/medtronic-expands-recall-to-include-more-than-463-000-insulin-pumps
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Enrollment is under way for the first pediatric trials for Afrezza inhalable insulin. This will involve children ages 4 to 17 living with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. It’s called the INHALE-1 phase three trial. They’re going to look at changes in A1C after 26 weeks.. and then changes in fasting glucose after another 26 weeks. If you’re interested, we’ve got the link for more info to this study and to learn about enrollment. Afrezza was approved for adults back in 2014.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04974528.
https://investors.mannkindcorp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/mannkind-announces-first-patient-enrolled-inhale-1-study
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Last week we told you about the Glucagon emergency kit recall from Lilly. Reuters is reporting that the kits were made in a factory previously cited for quality-control violations, including several involving the glucagon product.
Lilly had received a report of a patient who experienced seizures even after being injected with the drug, a sign that glucagon was not potent enough to work. The company said the product failure might be related to its manufacturing process, without elaborating.
A spokesperson declined to say whether Lilly has received other reports of adverse events related to the Glucagon kits.
Separately, Lilly is facing a federal criminal investigation into alleged manufacturing irregularities involving another of its U.S. factories in New Jersey. Reuters is following both stories and of course, we will too.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/exclusive-eli-lillys-recalled-emergency-diabetes-drug-came-plant-cited-by-fda-2021-10-04/
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Big new report on adults with type 1.. called a forgotten population in this write up. The consensus statement covers diagnosis, goals and targets, schedule of care, self-management education and lifestyle, glucose monitoring, insulin therapy, hypoglycemia, psychosocial care and much more.
This is a joint statement from the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Their last consensus report on type 2 diabetes has been "highly influential," these researchers say.. so they recognize the need to develop a comparable report specifically addressing type 1 diabetes in adults.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/960158
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Adults with Type 2 diabetes on statin therapy may see worsening diabetes symptoms. Important caution: the researchers are quick to say that association does not prove causation, no patient should just stop taking their statins based on this study. These are cholesterol lowering medications with brand names like Lipitor and Crestor..
Statin users had a 37% higher risk for diabetes progression, including extremely high blood sugar levels and elevated rates of disease complications. Nearly half of adults with Type 2 diabetes also have high cholesterol and many of them stop taking statins due to this kind of thing. But that may increase the risk for heart attack or stroke. So definitely talk to your doctor before making any changes.
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/10/04/statins-diabetes-progression-risk-study/7261633358483/
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More to come, But first, I want to tell you about one of our great sponsors who helps make Diabetes Connections possible.
Real Good Foods. Where the mission is Be Real Good
They make nutritious foods— grain free, high in protein, never added sugar and from real ingredients—the new Entrée bowls are great. They have a chicken burrito, a cauliflower mash and braised beef bowl.. the lemon chicken I’ve told you about and more! They keep adding to the menu line! You can buy online or find a store near you with their locator right on the website. I’ll put a link in the FB comments and as always at d-c dot com.
Back to the news…
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DreaMed Diabetes gets FDA approval to expand their platform to people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Called Advisor Pro, it’s the first decision support system that has been cleared to assist healthcare providers in the management of diabetes patients who use insulin as well as CGMs and meters. We spoke to these folks on the podcast last year. They say Advisor Pro aims to solve the massive worldwide shortage of endocrinologists by empowering primary care clinicians, to be able to provide expert level endocrinological care to diabetes patients. The company’s founder says the next step is to develop and extend the technology to cover all injectable or oral medications for diabetes.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211006005640/en/
https://diabetes-connections.com/we-treat-the-data-lifting-the-burden-of-diabetes-with-dreamed/
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Really interesting look at who’s adopting newer diabetes technology. This is from an article over at Dia Tribe where they feature a research study showing that roughly 55% of people with diabetes had positive, open attitudes toward technology. However, another 20% had negative attitudes and did not trust technology, while the remaining 25% either did not want additional data, did not want to wear a device on their body or had a very high level of diabetes distress related to using devices.
When they focused on people with type 2.. it turns out the uptake of technology was actually lowest among people aged 18 to 25. This group also had the highest levels of diabetes distress and the highest A1C levels, and many reported that they did not like having a device on their body as their main reason for refusing the devices. Others reported the frequency of alerts and alarms, feeling physically uncomfortable, and cost as reasons for rejecting devices.
These researchers say providers need to find ways to avoid making patients feel guilty about their choice of technology as well as watching out for negative judgements for those who use devices but don’t achieve near perfect glucose control.
https://diatribe.org/new-tech-and-psychological-toll-diabetes-management
Please join me wherever you get podcasts for our next episode - The episode out right now is all about the film Pay or Die an upcoming documentary about insulin access and affordability. –
That’s In the News for this week.. if you like it, please share it! Thanks for joining me! See you back here soon.