Insulin Therapy for Diabetes Epidemic: A Patent Review

Diabetes is a serious and chronic problem that can be attributed to the insufficient release of the insulin or when body does not respond to the insulin which is already present. This disease has been targeted for corrective action and implementation among four non-communicable diseases by world leaders according to WHO report. The prevalence of diabetes has been estimated to be double from 4.7% of adult population in 1980 to 8.5% in the present scenario. The estimated deaths due to this epidemic disease were 1.5 million in 2012 alone. Currently, approximately 400 million people are suffering from diabetes worldwide. Although the factors leading to Type I diabetes are unknown, there are many therapies available in market for Type II disease which bags more than 90% of the total diabetes cases. But, the current treatment for this disease seems to be lacking in terms of proper management of disease, while insulin still remains the ultimate therapy to achieve comparatively effective glycemic control. In this review, an attempt has been made to summarize the patent applications filed in the field of pulmonary delivery of insulin as dry powder through an inhaler in various formulations. This review will provide an insight to the development and advancement for various formulations of insulin and the design of inhaler to improve the bioavailability of powder formulation of insulin, which would provide an alternate treatment with better acceptability or tolerability among the patients as compared to the intravenous delivery to offer better management of epidemic diabetes.