http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2015/03/03/if-you-want-to-make-a-good-drug-great-cost-must-be-factored-in/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix
One of the “game-changing innovations” cited by Lorenzetti is Alfrezza, an inhaled version of insulin marketed by MannKind and Sanofi. The attraction of an inhalable form of insulin is that diabetics would avoid injecting themselves with this life-saving hormone. However, this isn’t an entirely new concept. Pfizer marketed an inhaled insulin product, Exubera, a decade ago, and for a variety of reasons it failed so badly that Pfizer took a $2.6 billion pretax loss. MannKind and Sanofi believe, however, that Alfrezza is a superior product and that may prove to be the case. But, while the FDA has approved Alfrezza, the long-term human safety implications of delivering a growth hormone like insulin to the lung still need to be proven and the manufacturer will be studying this over the coming years. Just because insulin can be injected safely over the course of a diabetic’s life doesn’t guarantee that inhaling insulin will be just as safe.