Eli Lilly and T1D Exchange, an R&D acceleration platform for type 1 diabetes, said today they launched a multi-year research collaboration intended to learn more about the experiences of people with type 1 diabetes—a study they hope will help them develop new treatments and advance overall diabetes care. 

The collaboration will involve multiple projects over an initial five-year period. The companies’ first project will be a survey intended to assess how children and adults with type 1 diabetes manage the disease over time with insulin pumps and multiple daily injections.

After the survey, the companies plan to launch a study of clinic registry participants, with the goals of gaining more insight on how insulin pumps are used and how multiple daily injections occur in real-world practice. The study aims to collect self-reported data annually on the use of insulin and devices in order to learn more about the management of type 1 diabetes, how it may change over time, and how different management approaches relate to glycemic control, acute complications, and use of health services.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust is funding the research project, which aims to recruit a minimum of 2,500 patients. Data and recommendations from the research will be shared publicly once analysis is complete, the companies promised.

The collaboration is intended to draw upon Lilly's long history of and expertise in type 1 diabetes—the company introduced the first commercially available insulin in 1923—and the resources of T1D Exchange’s research model, which include a network of more than 70 clinics across the U.S., a clinic registry of more than 26,000 people, a sample repository, and a patient and caregiver online community for T1D named Glu.

The T1D Exchange Clinic Registry was established to provide real-world data on large numbers of children and adults with type 1 diabetes for both academic and company researchers. T1D Exchange data will be analyzed toward developing a future survey of health care providers from the clinic network and members of the Glu community, Lilly and T1D said.

“This collaboration with Lilly is a great example of how the registry data can be used to address key issues that are important to individuals with type 1 diabetes,” said Roy Beck, M.D., Ph.D., director of the T1D Exchange Clinic Coordinating Center. Dr. Beck is also executive director of the JAEB Center for Health Research.

T1D Exchange is the first program of Unitio, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect researchers, physicians, and patients battling disease in a way that facilitates discoveries, accelerates treatments, and provides answers to some of the most pressing questions.

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