Patients, Physicians and Bloggers Unite for Diabetes

Patients, doctors, and in particular bloggers have joined together to try and improve diabetes research and treatments. MD Consult News (may require subscription) is reporting that "Prominent diabetes specialists, advocates, and educators are preparing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s guidance on safety testing for diabetes drugs, arguing that the new standards are excessive and threaten to stifle drug discovery at the expense of patients who need more treatment options."

I have previously blogged about this issue in my previous post. Rough Times for New Diabetes Drugs: The Diabetes Conspiracy Part III. It is particularly concerning to me that the FDA's decision to make it virtually impossible for any new diabetes treatment to get approved is primarily based on one controversial and highly publicized study whose lead author may very likely be the next head of the FDA. Could this study have been politically motivated?

The bottom line is that despite many of the treatments we have available, the majority of diabetics in the US are not well controlled, leading to substantial morbidity and mortality. We need new therapies. Though safety if critically important, the FDA recommendations are not only restrictive and excessive but also not really scientifically based, since the results of the one controversial study that generated this recommendation have all but been disproved (see here and here).

I am glad to see I am not alone in wanting this issue resolved. The following excellent bloggers have already signed up:

Amy at DiabetesMine, Marsten at SugarStats, Nadia at Diabetes Health, Kerri at SixUntilMe, Allison at Lemonade Life, Gina at Diabetes Talkfest Blog, Fran at Diabetes Day by Day, Kitty at Diabetes Living Today, David at Diabetes Daily, Bernard at the Diabetes Technology Blog, David at Mendosa, Howard at dLife, and Scott at Scott's Web Log

To look at and sign the petition, please CLICK HERE
The goal is to get 20,000 signatures.