New therapy

Yep, very early days.. but at least the compound is in Phase 1/2 already. For me though, the need for chronic immunosuppressant therapy makes this (and transplant therapy) less attractive -- but clearly has its place.

For the trial, yeah.. but even if this made it into a more widely-available treatment you would need immunosuppressants as your body would simple attack the new islets as it did at onset. It's not really any different to current islet transplants, just doesn't require a donor.

What's potentially more exciting is that Vertex think they have a way to 'encapsulate' the new stem-derived beta cells so that they are not attacked by the immune system. This tech is much earlier stage though and so it will be a while before we see trials.