quotable quotes - January 2013

"Type 1 diabetes might be a more desirable indication given the limited therapeutic choices and unique mechanism of action with no weight gain or hypoglycemia liability."

– Dr. Sanjay Kaul (Cedars Sinai, Los Angeles, CA) suggesting that SGLT-2 inhibitors, a new type 2 diabetes drug class, may be a good option for type 1 diabetes as well; the FDA Advisory Committee Meeting for Invokana (canagliflozin), Silver Spring, MD, January 10, 2013. For more on this new drug class, see this issue’s new now next and learning curve.

"Get a CGM. Use it all the time because it is extremely helpful...There is no question in my mind that if you can get a CGM, you should get it… And just because you are not on a pump yet doesn’t mean you cannot have a CGM."

– Dr. Saleh Adi (UCSF Children’s Hospital, San Francisco) giving parents advice on continuous glucose monitors (CGM); JDRF’s T1D & Me Symposium, Palo Alto, CA, January 12, 2013.

"A [CGM] sensor lasts six days and an infusion set lasts three days. We just got funding to coat the infusion set to make it last six or seven days too…It’s my goal to make the minimal number of devices; the least number of things on your belt with the least number of alarms."

– Dr. Bruce Buckingham (Stanford University, Stanford, CA) on the potential of combining an insulin pump and CGM into a single insertion site; JDRF’s T1D & Me Symposium, Palo Alto, CA, January 12, 2013.

"It’s important to understand that not all people with type 2 diabetes are the same, and different GLP-1s will work for different sub-populations."

– Dr. David Solomon (President and CEO of Zealand Pharma, Copenhagen, Denmark) on Lyxumia, Zealand/Sanofi's GLP-1 in development; JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, San Francisco, CA, January 7-9, 2013.

“Diabetes is about numbers, and if you’re not looking at the numbers, you can’t make the appropriate changes.”

– Dr. Saleh Adi (UCSF Children’s Hospital, San Francisco), giving parents advice on logging insulin pump, blood glucose meter, and CGM data; JDRF’s T1D & Me Symposium, Palo Alto, CA, January 12, 2013.