Dia-B shares soar after filing insulin patent

Diabetes specialist Dia-B Tech's (ASX:DIA) shares rose nearly 70 per cent yesterday on news that it had filed a new Australian provisional patent to protect a mechanism for dispersing insulin more rapidly.

When Dia-B listed on the ASX in January its shares opened at $0.27, then quickly fell below their $0.20 issue price. The shares, which have continued to fall, were trading at $0.12 at the time of writing, still up substantially from $0.078 when trade closed on Tuesday.

The mechanism discovered by Dia-B speeds the breakdown of insulin in its natural complex state, lowering high blood glucose levels faster -- a discovery which could be of benefit to diabetes sufferers.

Dia-B's CEO Ken Smith said that "under very strong patent attorney advice" the company could not divulge full details of the discovery. While Dia-B is conducting studies in relation to the discovery in rats, Smith also declined to disclose how many rats were involved.

"In August we lodged a patent application about ISF402, our lead project, and zinc. So this is another plank in our intellectual property portfolio," he said.

Smith said Dia-B intended to take ISF402 into phase I clinical trials in mid-2006.

Dia-B chairman Dr Michael Wooldridge said in a statement that, "we believe this discovery is a totally new concept in understanding how insulin normally works and that an abnormality in this process may lead to type 2 diabetes."

New understanding of insulin

"We've gone a fair way along the pathway, but not necessarily all the way, in understanding how insulin works," said Smith.

While only single insulin molecules (or monomers) can bind with the body's insulin receptors, unmodified or natural insulin consists of groups of six molecules (hexamers) stabilised by zinc. Dispersal of insulin hexamers to monomers occurs naturally in the body, but the insulin injected by diabetics can take some time to disperse.

'Fast-acting' synthetic analogues of insulin -- altered structurally so they don't form hexamers -- are already available. Diabetics use fast-acting insulin close to mealtimes to act as a quick signal to the body to take up glucose.

Dia-B aims "to develop drugs for treatments that can be taken orally and naturally and reduce dependence on synthetics," said Smith. By combining hexamers of unmodified (or natural) insulin so they are rapidly dispersed, Dia-B's discovery may enable 'fast-acting' compositions of natural insulin -- rather than synthetic analogues -- to be made.