Drugmakers launch inhaled insulin

Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J.

Hoping to appeal to millions of needle-phobic Americans with diabetes, drugmakers Sanofi and Mannkind have just launched Afrezza, an insulin that’s inhaled, rather than injected.

Afrezza was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last June for patients with either Type 1 or 2 diabetes, to be used along with other medicines, diet and exercise.

Paris-based Sanofi SA, a major player in the huge diabetes-treatment market, then licensed Afrezza’s worldwide marketing rights from Mannkind Corp. of Valencia, Calif., which developed Afrezza.

“This is an alternative for those patients who are not willing to inject insulin” or to increase the number of shots per day, Stefan Schwarz, Sanofi’s head of U.S. marketing for Afrezza, said in an interview Tuesday. That’s a lot of patients. More than 30 million Americans are estimated to have diabetes.