Diabetes Medicines

It’s nearly summer, time for a trip to the beach, the mountains, or beyond. Wherever you’re vacationing, some advance planning will help ensure you have a healthy trip. Before you travel, here’s what to do:

Before you hit the road, get a letter from your doctor explaining how you take care of your diabetes. If you use insulin or any other medications or devices, it should list them. In case of emergency, you should also have a prescription for insulin or oral medication.

What are the risk factors for Diabetes?
Risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes include older age, obesity, family history of Diabetes, prior history of Gestational Diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, physical inactivity, and race/ethnicity. African Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans, American Indians, and some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are at particularly high risk for Type 2 Diabetes.

Risk factors are less well defined for Type 1 Diabetes than for Type 2 Diabetes, but autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors are involved in developing this type of Diabetes.

Since insulin was discovered in the 1920s, the only option for using it was through injections. But now there’s Exubera, the brand name of a powdered form of insulin that’s absorbed by the lungs through the use of a hand-held inhaler.

FDA learns about problems with products through a system called "MedWatch". Consumers can report any problems they have with FDA-regulated products through the MedWatch system. You can find information and instructions for reporting problems with medical devices at the MedWatch web site.

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.

FDA does not "rate" the effectiveness of different Medications. If you have questions about which Diabetes pill is best for you, you should ask your doctor.

Monitor your blood sugar daily to see if your Diabetes medicines are working properly. Consult your doctor if you think your medicines are not working correctly. For best results, oral Medication must be taken regularly every day, not irregularly or started and stopped according to blood sugar. Since many dosages are available, a physician can change the dosage if blood sugars are running too high or too low. Some of these drugs can be used in combination with one another. You should change your Diabetes medicines only when your doctor advises you to.

FDA enlists the aid of non-government experts from across the country to help the agency reach decisions, particularly concerning controversial issues or new and unusual products. This group is called a "panel" or "Advisory committee." Advisory committees consist of medical professionals, scientists and researchers, industry leaders, consumers, and patients.

Since 1938, every new drug has been the subject of an approved New Drug Approval (NDA) application before it is sold in the U.S. The NDA application is the vehicle through which drug sponsors formally propose that the FDA approve a new pharmaceutical for sale and marketing in the U.S. The data gathered during the animal studies and human clinical trials of an Investigational New Drug (IND) become part of the NDA.
The goals of the NDA are to provide enough information to permit FDA reviewers to reach the following key decisions:

• whether the drug is safe and effective in its proposed use or uses.
  
  

FDA does not develop or test new medicines or other treatments. Instead, FDA evaluates the information from manufacturers who have tested their medicines. FDA does give substantial advice to the companies who are developing the drugs or other products.