INDIANAPOLIS — A young boy in Fishers is the first child in the state to receive a newly approved drug which delays the onset of Type 1 diabetes.
And while it's not a cure, it is a breakthrough decades in the making.
Like most 9-year-olds, Colin perks up when you ask about sports. When explaining diabetes, he has few words.
"It's when your pancreas stops working," Colin said.
Fortunately, understanding more than that right now is up to his parents. They know the worry and responsibility that comes with a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Two of their daughters have it, and a blood test revealed Colin was at risk.
"He's in what's called stage 2," mom Kelli Ozdemir said. "There's three stages of Type 1 diabetes. Stage 1 is that you have some of the positive autoantibody markers, which Colin did. Then, stage 2 is you start having elevated sugars. Colin also has elevated sugars."
But Colin is not dependent on insulin. It's the perfect window for qualifying to take the newly FDA-approved drug Teplizumab or Tzield, an antibody which delays the onset of Type 1 diabetes.
Colin recently become the first pediatric patient in Indiana to receive the therapy.
"This is huge," said Dr. Jamie Felton, pediatric endocrinologist at Riley Hospital. "It has been shown to delay the onset by three to five years in some cases. And so my hope is that we can go as long as possible without him needing to think about insulin, without the family needing to think about diabetes every second of every day."
It was delivered through an IV over 14 consecutive days at IU Health.
"The two-week infusion was very costly, it was around $200,000. Our insurance, fortunately, covered it," Kelli said.
Now, Colin is wearing a continuous glucose monitor, and mom reports his sugars are stable.
"It's not a cure, it's not prevention, but to buy those families three to five years, even a year, two years without that burden of managing Type 1 diabetes, I think is a gift," Felton said.
"I feel good about buying some time," dad Gemi Ozdemir said. "That is really the bottom line here, is buying some time."