November 14 was not chosen as World Diabetes Day by chance.
It is the day that Frederick Banting was born, in 1891, one of the scientists responsible for the discovery of insulin, a treatment that changed the history of medicine and saved millions of human lives.
A century ago, the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes mellitus was almost equivalent to a death sentence. Doctors did not have effective treatment at their disposal, and patients, even young children, gradually lost the battle for life.
Until a scientific discovery changed everything. In January 1922, in Toronto, Canada, 13-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive insulin therapy. His story was linked to one of the most important achievements of modern Medicine, but also to a decision of scientists that went down in history: the granting of patent rights for just one dollar each.
On the occasion of today's World Diabetes Day, we publish the tribute of the Greek newspaper "Naftemporiki", which presents the story of the young patient, the discovery that saved millions of lives and the decision that contributed to the spread of a treatment that changed the course of diabetes forever.
The following is the article of "Naftemporiki":
"The 14-year-old boy who defeated death. And the one-dollar patent that changed Medicine"
At Toronto General Hospital, a teenager lies exhausted in a bed. Leonard Thompson is 13 years old and weighs about 29 kg.
Diabetes leads him to a slow, relentless exhaustion: the diet applied by doctors restricts his food so drastically that it keeps the disease under control for a while, condemning him to starvation at the same time.
We are in the year 1922. There is no treatment that can stop the course of type 1 diabetes. For children who are sick, doctors have little means and families have little hope. Leonard is close to death when doctors decide to test an experimental animal pancreas extract on him.
The first injection is not the solution they expect. His blood sugar decreases, but not enough, while the impurities of the preparation cause an abscess at the injection site. The test stops. The idea, however, is not abandoned.
Twelve days later, biochemist James Kohlip has prepared a cleaner and stronger extract. The second attempt pays off: within a day, Leonard's blood sugar drops to normal levels and his condition shows immediate improvement. For the first time, the disease that until then had been incessantly narrowing the road to death can be treated.
The idea that is born overnight
The path to that hospital room begins with Frederick Banding, a young surgeon with limited research experience. In the fall of 1920, he read about the role of the pancreas in diabetes and formulated a hypothesis: if researchers could isolate a substance from the pancreas, they might be able to control the disease.
In May 1921, at the University of Toronto, Bunding begins trials together with medical student Charles Best. Professor John McLeod gives them a laboratory space and takes over the scientific supervision. A few months later, Kolip joins the team, taking on the crucial task of making the extract cleaner.
Scientists work with animal pancreas and test their preparations, first on laboratory animals and then on patients. Progress is not linear. Each step brings new problems: the extract must be strong enough to have an effect, but also pure enough that it can be safely administered to humans.
The first injection in Leonard Thompson shows how great the distance remains between a case and a treatment. The second proves that this distance can be covered and turns the laboratory into the starting point of a new era for medicine.
Treatment must reach outside the laboratory
Discovery alone is not enough. In order to save patients beyond the few who are close to the university hospital, insulin must be produced in large quantities and with consistent quality.
Toronto lacks the production capacity to meet demand, and requests for treatment multiply as news of the first results spreads.
This is where the American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly enters history, the first to offer to help develop production. The collaboration with the university gives the required industrial scale, while the Toronto laboratories continue to be involved in the improvement and control of the product. Insulin is starting to reach more patients, but production remains difficult and demand exceeds the capabilities of the first laboratories.
Within a few years, the treatment changes the daily lives of people who until then treated diabetes as a death sentence. Leonard lives another 14 years on insulin. He died in 1935, at the age of 27, from complications of diabetes. Insulin does not cure him permanently; But it gives him years of life that he would not have otherwise.
The one-dollar diploma
In 1923, Bunding, Best and Kohlip ceded the rights to the University of Toronto to manufacture the extract, for one dollar each. The decision did not mean that insulin was made for free or that the commercial interests surrounding its production disappeared. However, it reflects the effort of the team and the university to prevent the appropriation of the method by a single private individual and to keep the way open for its production by more institutions.
History often encapsulates this choice in a phrase attributed to Banding: "Insulin belongs to the world."
The documents record the act itself: the three researchers transfer the rights to the university for a symbolic price, while production passes from the small laboratory to the pharmaceutical industry.
The discovery is attributed to a team of four scientists: Bunding, Best, Collipp and McLeod. In 1923, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Bunding and McLeod; Bunding shares the prize money with Best, while McLeod shares his own with Kolip.
An anniversary starting with Banding's birthday
November 14 is the birthday of Frederick Bunding, who was born in 1891. The date is chosen for World Diabetes Day, established in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization and officially recognized by the United Nations in 2006.
The anniversary is not just about a scientific discovery. It tells how an idea goes from a university lab to a hospital bed and from there to an organized industrial production, transforming a disease that killed children into a chronic condition that could be treated.
At the center of the story remains Leonard Thompson: a 29 kg child, a first test that fails and a second that changes his course. Around him, four scientists, a university and a pharmaceutical company attempt to solve a problem that medicine has until then considered insurmountable.
The one dollar of the patent is not the price of insulin. It's the symbolic price at which researchers concede control of the method that can keep millions of people alive.
Naftemporiki
