It was touted as a revolutionary new delivery system for insulin since it was developed some 80 years ago when Exubera, an inhaled insulin, was approved for adults with types 1 or 2 diabetes in January 2006.
Unfortunately it never took off, failing to gain the acceptance of patients and physicians and Pfizer announced on October 18, 2007 that it will end the marketing of Exubera, phasing it out over the next three months.
It was a business decision and there was no issue of safety or efficacy. But FDA has warned on April 10, 2008 that more cases of lung cancers have been reported in patients treated with Exubera than in controls in clinical trials. FDA added that “too few cases to determine whether the emergence of these events is related to Exubera” and all patients diagnosed with lung cancer had a history of cigarette smoking.
Having a ‘philosophy’ of “never be the first one to use the new medicine o.r the last one to discard the old medicine,” I somehow never prescribed Exubera.
Unfortunately it never took off, failing to gain the acceptance of patients and physicians and Pfizer announced on October 18, 2007 that it will end the marketing of Exubera, phasing it out over the next three months.
It was a business decision and there was no issue of safety or efficacy. But FDA has warned on April 10, 2008 that more cases of lung cancers have been reported in patients treated with Exubera than in controls in clinical trials. FDA added that “too few cases to determine whether the emergence of these events is related to Exubera” and all patients diagnosed with lung cancer had a history of cigarette smoking.
Having a ‘philosophy’ of “never be the first one to use the new medicine o.r the last one to discard the old medicine,” I somehow never prescribed Exubera.
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