MannKind Corporation has announced that it signed an agreement with JDRF (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) to collaborate on research focused on the use of Afrezza inhaled insulin in pediatric diabetes patients. JDRF is the largest non-profit funder of type 1 diabetes research in the world, according to the organization.
The FDA approved Afrezza for the treatment of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in adults in June 2014. MannKind regained the rights to Afrezza from Sanofi earlier this year and has committed to marketing the product itself.
JDRF Chief MIssion Officer and VP or Research Aaron Kowalski commented, “JDRF is pleased to partner with MannKind to explore opportunities to help facilitate making Afrezza more broadly available to the T1D community interested in benefiting from this important therapeutic. MannKind is a fantastic organization focused on addressing the needs of people living with T1D and we look forward to collaborating and continuing to drive research to improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes.”
MannKind Chief Medical Officer Ray Urbanski said, “We are excited to be working with JDRF and the leading scientific experts, community physicians and people with diabetes that are associated with this organization. We have already begun to evaluate Afrezza for use in the pediatric population and we look forward to working with JDRF to advance our mutual interests in advancing therapies for all patients with type 1 diabetes.”
Read the MannKind press release.
