Potential Market for Islet Sheet Product

A cure for diabetes would save $85 billion of direct treatment costs alone in the United States*. The annual cost per diabetic is in excess of $10,000 and for insulin-requiring diabetics several times that, $20,000 to $200,000. The most similar procedure, islet transplantation, has a total cost (excluding physicians’ fees, cost of immune suppression drugs, and follow-up) at $150,000 to $300,000. Thus, both private pay and insurance markets will support high prices for effective Islet Sheet therapy.

Islet Sheet Allo containing human islets will be introduced first. This will be followed in time by Islet Sheet Xeno made from xenogeneic (pig) islets, then Islet Sheet StemCell made through stem cell technologies, islet expansion and/or genetic engineering.

*Diabetes Care 31:3 (March 2008), “Economic Costs of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2007”.
“The total estimated cost of diabetes in 2007 is $174 billion, including $116 billion in 2007 in excess medical expenditures.” ($27 billion direct diabetes treatment, $58 billion for diabetes complications, and $31 billion excess general medical costs)