IRVINE, Calif.—Attendees of the recent Rachmiel Levine Diabetes and Obesity Symposium, held in Long Beach, Calif., witnessed the launch of two new diabetes companies: one targeted at commercial drug companies, the other at academics. According to a recent report by Frost & Sullivan, the diabetes market in Europe alone is expected to increase more than 50 percent from 2005 to 2012, surpassing the $4.5 billion mark.
Privately held Prodo Laboratories will supply commercial diabetes researchers with human islet tissue as well as supporting media, reagents, and biological factors, while public-good company Invenio Institute will provide similar resources to academic diabetes researchers.
"It is important to build these two new diabetes companies now with the serious increase in the incidence of diabetes in the world's population, driving a critical need for new research efforts," said Dr. David Sharp, founder, president and CEO of both companies. Sharp has had extensive experience with diabetes and had previously co-founded Cytotherapeutics and Novocell.
