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Global accessibility of therapeutics for diabetes mellitus

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 18, pages 199–204 (2022)Cite this article

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Diabetes mellitus is a global health issue, yet huge regional disparities exist in its care, including in access to basic necessities such as insulin. In this Viewpoint, six experts from different regions discuss differences in access to insulin and other diabetes mellitus therapies as well as the key barriers in diabetes mellitus care accessibility and potential solutions.

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Acknowledgements

K.K. acknowledges the support of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration East Midlands (ARC EM) and the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sinai Health System, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Michael Fralick

  2. NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Alicia J. Jenkins

  3. Insulin For Life Global, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Alicia J. Jenkins

  4. Leicester Diabetes Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Kamlesh Khunti

  5. Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Jean Claude Mbanya

  6. Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre & Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Viswanathan Mohan

  7. School of Medicine, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Maria Inês Schmidt

Authors
  1. Michael Fralick
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  2. Alicia J. Jenkins
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  3. Kamlesh Khunti
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  4. Jean Claude Mbanya
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  5. Viswanathan Mohan
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  6. Maria Inês Schmidt
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Contributions

Michael Fralick

Michael Fralick is a board-certified General Internist in Canada and the USA. Currently, he is a clinician scientist at Sinai Health in Toronto and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. He also works clinically at the Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.

Alicia J. Jenkins

Alicia Jenkins is an adult endocrinologist and a clinician-researcher at The University of Sydney, Australia. Her clinical and research interests include the prediction and prevention of diabetes complications and technology use in diabetes mellitus care. She is also a Board Member of Insulin For Life (www.insulinforlife.org), a diabetes aid NGO.

Kamlesh Khunti

Kamlesh Khunti is a general practitioner and Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester, UK. He has been a recipient of numerous international awards, published over 1,000 articles in peer-reviewed journals and was named one of the top researchers in type 2 diabetes mellitus by Expertscape.

Jean Claude Mbanya

Jean Claude Mbanya, MD, PhD, FRCP (London), is a Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology and Postgraduate Dean, Doctoral School of Life Sciences, Health and Environment at the University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Viswanathan Mohan

Viswanathan Mohan, MD, PhD, DSc, FRSE, is Chairman of Dr Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and Director of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation at Chennai, India. He is the recipient of many international awards, including the Dr Harold Rifkin Award from the American Diabetes Association. Dr Mohan has over 1,400 publications with over 161,000 citations and an h-index of 141.

Maria Inês Schmidt

Maria Inês Schmidt is a Professor at the School of Medicine, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. She was part of various diabetes mellitus panels for WHO and is a member of the Lancet Commission for Diabetes and of the Brazilian Academy of Science. She trained in Paediatric Endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA, and in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Michael Fralick, Alicia J. Jenkins, Kamlesh Khunti, Jean Claude Mbanya, Viswanathan Mohan or Maria Inês Schmidt.

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Competing interests

M.F. is part of a start-up company called ProofDx that has created a point-of-care testing device using CRISPR for COVID-19. M.F. has received multiple grants from CIHR and the Canadian Military for clinical trials to identify treatments for COVID-19. A.J.J. has received peer-reviewed diabetes-related grants from the following bodies: NHMRC Australia, JDRF Australia, JDRF International, Abbott Europe, Sanofi-Aventis, and Sydney Medical School and Foundation. A.J.J. is an honorary board member of Insulin for Life, a founder/co-chair of the Diabetes Advocacy Group, including members of Insulin for Life, the Life for a Child programme and Children Living as Neighbours, a member of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Western Pacific Executive Council, Australia’s representative to the IDF and elected to the IDF Western Pacific Executive Council. K.K. has acted as consultant, advisory board member and speaker for Abbott, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, NAPP, Lilly, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Berlin-Chemie AG/Menarini Group, Sanofi-Aventis, Servier and Boehringer Ingelheim, and EACME grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis, Lilly, and Merck Sharp & Dohme. J.C.M. and the institutions to which he is associated have received funding from the following pharmaceutical companies for educational, advisory and research activities: AstraZeneca, GSK, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Servier. V.M. has acted as consultant and speaker and received research or educational grants from Novo Nordisk, MSD, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Lifescan J&J, Sanofi-Aventis, Roche Diagnostics, Abbott and from several Indian pharmaceutical companies including USV, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Sun Pharma. M.I.S. declares no competing interests.

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Fralick, M., Jenkins, A.J., Khunti, K. et al. Global accessibility of therapeutics for diabetes mellitus. Nat Rev Endocrinol 18, 199–204 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-021-00621-y

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