Bristol: Rebuilding a Diabetes Franchise--with Insulin

The great remaining religious divide in the drug industry is between those who reject and those who accept the fundamental therapeutic and economic importance of large molecule drugs. Diabetes is the central holy site in the schism since, for the most part, companies have either made small-molecule, oral therapies, or they've made injectable insulin. Bristol-Myers' deals for sustained-release insulin (with Flamel) and inhaled insulin (with QDose) mark both Bristol's increasing embrace of the large-molecule world as well as a novel strategy in the diabetes world.