Cooper's recovery was so successful that after his initial trial, he was allowed to stay on Clonidine as part of a compassionate-use program while the pharmaceutical company awaits federal approval to market the drug. I could tell it the next day, too, but that had more to do with age than with my feet. In these carefully controlled studies, the center's doctors, staff and patients work with pharmaceutical companies and other researchers to test promising new therapies as part of the Food and Drug Administration's approval process. That's part of what universities are supposed to do. In the waning months of 1998, the center was participating in nine trials and had four more scheduled to start in early 1999.
Some address diabetes itself while others offer potential help for complications of the disease.
They included tests of several drugs for treatment of mild to severe diabetic neuropathy, one using commercially grown human skin to treat foot ulcers, another testing a drug to inhibit fat absorption to help patients lose weight, plus a trial of an inhaled form of insulin. Next spring, the center will participate in a trial of an automatic glucose testing device, which Pfeifer called the missing link in being able to develop an artificial pancreas. Each trial must be approved by the medical school's human subjects review committee. We're not interested in just getting money to run a trial. If the answer is yes, then it helps us bring things quicker to eastern North Carolina.