Drug used to delay type one diabetes approved for NHS use in Birmingham

A drug developed through University of Birmingham research has been approved by the NHS to treat early-stage type one diabetes.

The announcement was first made by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on 23 June.

The approved immunotherapy drug, Tepilzumab, can delay the progression of type one diabetes in individuals who are in the second stage of the condition.

The drug is now available for children over eight years  and adults with stage two type one diabetes. It can be accessed through the NHS.

The announcement of Tepilzumab being approved for UK use follows the work of academics and clinicians that want to improve the support that’s available for children and young people that eventually develop type one diabetes.

The ongoing research from Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospitals and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust at the University of Birmingham is looking at how a screening programme can tell when a young person is at risk of the disease.

The Early Surveillance of Autoimmune diabetes (ELSA) study, led by professor Parth Narendran, has screened thousands of young people for antibodies that can identify the risk of developing type one diabetes later on. Screening programmes like ELSA will play a crucial role in identifying young people who will benefit from Tepilzumab.

Sam, a 14-year-old from Kings Norton, was the first patient to receive Tepilzumab at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Clinic Research Facility, led by Dr Renuka and her team of specialists. Now that the drug has been approved for funded NHS use, it’s estimated that around 1,100 could be eligible for the drug based on first-year data provided by the ELSA study.

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Professor Parth Narendran, a Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Birmingham said: “Today’s NICE recommendation for Tepilzumab marks a significant milestone in the UK for people at the very earliest stages of type 1 diabetes.

“As the first disease-modifying therapy shown to delay progression to clinical, insulin-requiring type 1 diabetes, Tepilzumab has the potential to transform the treatment paradigm from reacting to disease onset to intervening earlier in the disease process.

“This means that patients identified early, for example through the ELSA study led by the University of Birmingham, will have benefit from treatment that can give valuable additional years free from the daily burden of managing type 1 diabetes.

“This decision will go a long way to help the development of screening, monitoring and prevention pathways that will underpin the future of type 1 diabetes care.”

The approval of Tepilzumab being distributed by the NHS gives young people and adults more time to prepare for a life with type one diabetes, with data from a trial suggesting that the drug can delay the onset of symptomatic type one diabetes by an average of 2.5 years.

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Featured image via Unsplash