[Sheffield is where OG was brought up.]

ET

Sunday 9 September 2001

Diabetics to get needle-free injections soon BY LORRAINE FRASER Medical Correspondent (Filed: 09/09/2001)

A £120 GADGET, designed to free diabetics from the daily trauma of painful injections, is expected to be available in the Britain by the end of the year.

The device forces insulin under the skin at high pressure in a fraction of a second and its makers, a Sheffield-based company called The Medical House, claim that it will revolutionise patients' lives. It will also mean that health authorities will no longer have to meet the cost of disposing of millions of used syringes generated by diabetics every year.

Diabetes affects 1.4 million people in the UK and nearly 600,000, mostly children, need insulin daily in order to stay alive. Hundreds of thousands inject themselves four or more times a day with the hormone, which regulates sugar levels in the blood.

The hand-held device, called the mhi-500, is based on a device which has already been introduced in America. It uses jet pressure provided by a wind-up spring to blast the insulin through the surface of the skin and can deliver 3,000 doses before it needs to be replaced.

The Medical House has applied to the Medical Devices Agency for permission to market the invention and is now in talks with officials about making it available on the NHS, said Ian Townsend, the chief executive.

"The mhi-500 can deliver the insulin in only 300 milliseconds," he added. "Using a syringe takes as long as six seconds and we know from studies in America that the pain score for a needle-free device like this is far lower. He estimated that the device will cost about £120. Disposable parts, such as a special nozzle which must be replaced every week, are expected to cost around £1.

Dr Harry Brown, a family GP in Leeds and an adviser to the company, said: "When you see someone newly diagnosed with diabetes, the first thing they say is: `Will I have to give myself injections?' Injections are a nuisance and the thought that for the rest of your life you will be sticking needles into yourself is pretty traumatic."

A spokesman for the charity Diabetes UK said: "A lot of people are looking forward to the day when needles are no longer required. Some diabetics have to inject up to six times a day and anything that took away the pain and the nuisance of that would be very encouraging."

-- Anonymous, September 08, 2001