Background
In 2014, 422 million people in the world had diabetes – a prevalence of 8.5% among the adult population. The global cost of diabetes is now 825 billion dollars per year, according to the largest ever study of diabetes levels across the world.
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The prevalence of diabetes has been steadily increasing for the past 3 decades and is growing most rapidly in low- and middle-income countries. Associated risk factors such as being overweight or obesity are also increasing. Diabetes is an important cause of blindness, kidney failure, lower limb amputation and other long-term consequences that impact significantly on quality of life.
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Impact on patients
Systemic, inflammation that is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes is a main driver of medial and atherosclerotic intimal calcificatiion. Other risk factors for arterial calcification apply to diabetics, such as higher body mass index, higher blood pressure, and chronic kidney disease. About 30 percent of patients with Type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes and 10 to 40 percent of those with Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes eventually will suffer from kidney failure. In fact, diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the U.S., accounting for approximately 44% and 38% of incident and prevalent cases of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), respectively.1 While the total number of new patients with ESRD due to diabetes continues to rise (i.e., 49,603 new cases in 2011), there has been a plateau in the incidence rate over the past decade (i.e., 159 new cases per million in 2011).​
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The diabetes drugs market has a volume of around 30 billion US dollar, and is expected to grow. The diabetes treatment products include injectable diabetes drugs, insulin therapies, insulin pumps, and blood glucose monitoring systems. Available treatments include thiazolidinediones, sulphonylureas, meglitinides, DPP-4 inhibitors, biguanides, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors and human insulins and analogues. The monotherapy is projected to lose market share due to recent advances in research. As a result, In addition, the diabetic treatment industry is starting to encourage combinational drug treatments. Major industry participants include Teva Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd., Novo Nordisk AS, Merck & Company Inc., Medtronic Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Home Diagnostics Inc., Bayer Healthcare AG, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Abbott Laboratories.
Diabetes & Kidney Disease
Our therapy
Reversing calcification of the arteries is published. See Hardening of arteries. For diabetics suffering from cardiovascular disease this would be a significant improvement, and could prevent progression. When used early, the therapy could prevent or delay the onset for kidney disease related to calcification. The therapy could be used on its own, or as a compliment to available treatments.
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The Condition
Diabetes is an umbrella term for various diseases resulting from improper function of the hormone insulin.
When your body digest food to produce energy, the food is broken into sugars and glucose, among other things. Glucose is the essential source of energy for your cells, and during digestion it circulates through the body via the bloodstream. Normally, the body produces and releases the hormone insulin, which allows your cells to take up the circulating glucose and to fuel the intracellular processes necessary for proper function of the cell.
Diabetes occurs when the body produces too little or no insulin, or when your cells are resistant to insulin and cannot take up the glucose circulating your system. This causes your blood glucose level to rise while preventing your body from fully harnessing the energy for physiological processes.
This damages small blood vessels which affects highly vascularized organs like the kidney. The kidney has many small blood vessels to filter waste from the blood, and with more small blood vessels being damaged, the function of the kidney is impaired. Thus, Diabetes is a strong predictor for kidney disease, with diabetics being far more likely to suffer from kidney disease.
Kidney Disease
10% of the population worldwide is affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD), and millions die each year because they do not have access to affordable treatment. Over 2 million people worldwide currently receive treatment with dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive, yet this number may only represent 10% of people who actually need treatment to live. Of the 2 million people who receive treatment for kidney failure, the majority are treated in only five countries – the United States, Japan, Germany, Brazil, and Italy. In the US, treatment of chronic kidney disease is likely to exceed $48 billion per year. Treatment for kidney failure consumes 6.7% of the total Medicare budget to care for less than 1% of the covered population. In England, according to a recent report published by NHS Kidney Care, chronic kidney disease costs more than breast, lung, colon and skin cancer combined. In Australia, treatment for all current and new cases of kidney failure through 2020 will cost an estimated $12 billion.
According the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study, chronic kidney disease was ranked 27th in the list of causes of total number of deaths worldwide in 1990, but rose to 18th in 2010. This degree of movement up the list was second only to that for HIV and AIDs.