NHS APPROVES FIRST DRUG TO DELAY TYPE 1 DIABETES ONSET

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence approved teplizumab for use on the NHS in England and Wales on Tuesday, marking the first medication capable of delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes. The immunotherapy postpones the disease's emergence for up to three years in patients at high risk of developing symptomatic type 1 diabetes, according to the approval decision. The drug has been approved for use in adults and children aged eight and above with early, pre-symptomatic type 1 diabetes. Teplizumab does not cure the condition but offers patients additional years before requiring lifelong diabetes management.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone required for glucose to enter cells and produce energy. The condition typically emerges during childhood or adolescence, and millions of people worldwide live with the disease. Until this approval, insulin—discovered 105 years ago—remained the only available treatment, and it does not alter the disease's progression but merely replaces the missing hormone. By delaying symptom onset, patients gain time to reach developmental milestones before managing the demands of long-term diabetes care.

Dr Elizabeth Robertson, director of research at Diabetes UK, described the approval as marking "the start of a new age of type 1 diabetes treatment". The availability of teplizumab on the NHS represents the most significant breakthrough in addressing type 1 diabetes in more than a century, according to the charity. The drug offers those at high risk the first opportunity in the disease's history to postpone its symptomatic presentation. Patients will benefit from extended periods of normal life before commencing intensive diabetes management protocols.