The Motley Fool's health-care show Market Checkup focuses this week on diabetes, one of America's growing health-care concerns. There are two versions of this chronic disease, the more prevalent being type 2 diabetes, which makes up about 95% of all cases. Because of the overwhelming patient population, type 2 diabetes receives the majority of attention from Big Pharma companies.
Diabetes is no small problem. In 2010, one in 10 adults had diabetes, and more troubling, more than one in four senior citizens suffered from it. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death, and there are 2 million new cases in America every year, leading analysts to project spending on diabetes to approach $60 billion in just five years. And this isn't just an American problem: 370 million suffer from diabetes around the world.
In this video, health-care analysts David Williamson and Max Macaluso discuss the cutting edge of insulin treatments, including a new inhalable insulin in development by MannKind. Shares of the biotech went on a huge run before its latest phase 3 trial results. Watch and learn about the history of inhaled insulin, along with David and Max's thoughts about whether investors should hop on MannKind's bandwagon or be careful with this biotech run-up.
