Novo Nordisk's Search for a One-a-Day Diabetes Pill

Jackie Chaline was diagnosed with diabetes 16 years ago, but even after seven years of insulin therapy the 66-year-old Frenchwoman isn’t used to the sometimes painful regimen of four injections a day that keeps her alive. When Chaline eats out, she ducks into bathrooms to spare others the sight of the needle. She also has to rotate between her arms, belly, and thighs to find undamaged skin to prick. “Swallowing a tablet would make such a difference,” says Chaline, who has taken about 9,000 insulin shots in the past seven years.

Novo Nordisk hopes to provide one. The Danish company is spending at least $2 billion to make a pill hardy enough to cheat the body’s own defense mechanisms and deliver long-acting insulin to the bloodstream. “The odds of making it were a million to one five years ago,” says Chief Science Officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen. “Are we getting closer to a 50-50 scenario? Absolutely.”