An artificial pancreas developed in the Netherlands can help type 1 diabetes patients to control blood sugar levels more easily, improving their quality of life, a study published in medical journal The Lancet has found.

The device, a small portable pump which administers insulin and glucagon to steady blood sugar levels, was invented some 15 years ago by Dutch engineer Robin Koops.

Since then, 100,000 people have been using the device, which is being marketed as the Inreda AP and differs from other systems in that it administers both hormones.

In the first large-scale trial, self-financed by Koops’ company Inreda Diabetic, 75 people used the device for a year. Patients showed blood sugar levels which remained constant for an average of six hours longer, and reported fewer symptoms associated with type 1 diabetes, such as bad eyesight.

“It’s a very interesting study,” diabetes expert Hanno Pijl, who was not involved in the trial, told broadcaster NOS. Pijl noted that the trial was randomised and so lacked a control group and that part of the outcome could be the result of the placebo effect. “But I have no doubt the pump played a part,” he said.

Not all users of the device were comfortable wearing it, endocrinologist and trial researcher Arianne van Bon said. “It’s an apparatus with tubes and sensors dangling from your body. And you have to trust it to do the job. Some 10 to 15% of people had trouble relinquishing control,” she said.

In people with type 1 diabetes, the body produces no insulin at all which, if not controlled, can lead to blindness, kidney failure and heart failure.

“I used to monitor my blood sugar levels 24 hours a day,” trial participant Anneke van Haren told the broadcaster. “Now I feel as if I have my life back. I have even changed jobs,” she said.

Koops, himself a type 1 diabetes sufferer, said his sight had improved while others reported they no longer see specks, another common symptom of the disease. A further trial non-randomised trial planned for September will have to confirm these findings.

Quality of life

Charity Diabetes Fonds, which is involved in the development of the device, said the artificial pancreas is an important innovation which can improve people’s quality of life.

Koops hopes the positive results will induce health insurers to include the device in their healthcare packages. At the moment just a small group has access to the device via insurers Menzis and CZ.

A long-running trial by UMC Utrecht and 12 other hospitals started in 2022 may lead to inclusion in the basic health package. “I hope champagne corks will pop by 2026,” Van Bon said.