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Comment by tiahura | Hacker News Reader

In 1990, Pfizer and CalBio subsidiary MetaBio abandoned GLP-1 drug development despite showing efficacy and holding patents. Pfizer misjudged the market for injectable diabetes drugs. CalBio redirected focus to a heart failure treatment. This decision preceded successful GLP-1 development by other companies by a decade. Novo Nordisk later succeeded with GLP-1 after research starting in 1992.

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It's been 34 years, so the original Pfizer patents are invalid and can just be copied? Clearly the primary factor in inability to do that has to be regulation in bringing drug to market, right?

I guess they were aware how terrible and unpopular injections are for patients. These weren't the days of micro needles...

>>how terrible injections are for patients

What is this belief founded upon?

Disposable syringes and detachable needles have been around for over 50 years. We had 6mm needles in the 80s.

Evolution of Insulin Delivery Devices https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7261311/

This was just my understanding from seeing my grand-father 40 years ago having to drop his pants to use insulin syringe + needle, to the use today where you can lift your shirt and use a insulin pen in a couple of seconds.

The infection risk is real. What's the relative risk increase regarding death with (with, not from) Hepatitis B infection (not diagnosis, infection) between people who've never injected themselves with anything and injection drug users?

Personally I don't understand why so many people are so terrified of needles. Subcutaneous injection is so straightforward, even filling up the single use syringes yourself. I've done that once a week for the past nearly 7 years. But still, from talking with other people who use similar pharmaceuticals to me, so many of them are terrified of needles to the point they choose less effective routes of administration, even though they wish they could have the benefits of the injection route.

>I don't understand why so many people are so terrified of needles.

The fear associated with specific phobias is by definition extreme, unreasonable, and irrational. If you could understand it rationally, it wouldn’t be a phobia.

Personally I just don't particularly enjoy that type of pain... The type I associate with needles.

Maybe people just don't realize how little pain you can feel with a needle. I switched from the old formulation of humira to the new one (smaller needle and no citrate) and the difference is night and day. Before, I was dreading it every time (though objectively it didn't hurt that much), and after I sometimes don't even feel the needle.

Back then people would have gone to the doctor’s office for the injection. They would have done that because it wasn’t quite pay-for-service back then.

Source/elaboration?

This is just related that needle pens weren't available in the eighties. So people still were using single disposable syringes with needles which is more painful than using pens with micro needles which became available later.

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