What research is being done on the insulin patch? Where? Do they need volunteers? I would like to know if there are any trials in the State of California.

There is a brief but helpful review of both oral and patch insulins which you can get at Medscape. However, you will however have to register which is free. The only lead on clinical trials it gives would be to contact Emisphere Tech in Tarrytown, NY.

It looks as though a patch may work for basal insulin, but it is a long way from being comparable to Lantus (insulin glargine) by injection. These non injection ways of giving insulin have a low biological efficiency and are therefore likely to be expensive. In addition, for short term insulin needs at meal time they do not offer the precision of varying Humalog or NovoLog together with carb counting and adjusting for the pre-meal blood sugar. You might however like to look at an oral device which looks promising.

DOB