A new way to make cheap insulin




A group of German researchers have now developed a new method to cheaply produce insulin for the treatment of diabetes .

The team wanted to develop a new procedure to increase the yield of an insulin precursor from which the actual insulin can be obtained, and in this way reduce costs. They used a yeast called Pichia pastoris and modified the cells so that they produce the building block for insulin while growing on a special medium.
The results were highly gratifying: “With our procedure, Pichia pastoris delivers high yields – twice as much as known before”, says Ursula Rinas. “Already with few cells it is possible to produce a lot of the insulin precursor.”
Today, human insulin is produced in two different ways. One route involves the production of the insulin precursor using the well-known baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae . The newly described method from Ursula Rinas and her group also uses this route.

Insulin produced with this new method can be used normally and is identical to human insulin. Currently, the researchers are working on a method to produce a vaccine against dengue fever using the same system as described here.
For most people in developing countries medicine is too expensive. The purchasing of insulin in those countries is often cost prohibitive. Another problem is patent law that makes it impossible to recreate medicine and sell it at low prices. Once a patent has expired, as is the case with insulin, the so called generic drugs can be produced cheaply.


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