What is the status of new Treatments for Diabetes?

FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) has received a number of Investigational New Drug applications to study the use of cell therapy, monoclonal antibodies, and recombinant proteins to treat Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. It is still too early to know how promising these methods will be in treating Diabetes.

Researchers are investigating new technologies to measure glucose without fingersticks. In one method, near-infrared spectroscopy measures glucose through the skin. Essentially, this amounts to measuring glucose by shining a beam of light on the skin and is painless. Many reports in the scientific literature describe the challenges, strengths, and weaknesses of this and other new approaches to testing glucose without fingersticks.