World Diabetes Day: What Will It Take for a Cure?

November 14, 2025

Today is World Diabetes Day, a globally recognized campaign to spread awareness of a disease that affects millions worldwide. It is held every year on November 14th, the birthday of Sir Frederick Banting. Banting led the Canadian team that created injectable insulin in 1921, the first and only lifesaving treatment for T1D.

Though World Diabetes Day includes both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, we focus specifically on T1D. It provides an opportunity to spread awareness and support, to recognize those who fight against this unforgiving disease 24/7.

JDCA would like to take this time to reflect on where we began, where we are now, and where we are going. It is time to reflect on what it will take to see a cure for T1D.
 

Where We Began

Type 1 diabetes is not a new disease—the earliest written accounts are over 3,500 years old. Injectable insulin, the only lifesaving treatment, is only 104 years old. Prior to this, a T1D diagnosis was a death sentence.

Lifespans were extended for the first time and complications from the disease began to appear, sparking the hunt for better management. Within the next sixty years, urine blood glucose tests were replaced with glucose monitors, insulin injections using resharpened needles gave way to the first insulin pumps, and animal-derived insulins were largely replaced by human insulin, both short and long-lasting.

Now, management is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was even a decade ago, with improved treatment options, technology, and an advanced understanding of the disease. Every year, these are refined further. But, since the beginning, we have known treatment is not enough. Despite the well-deserved fanfare of the insulin revolution, Banting famously remarked that “Insulin is not a cure for diabetes; it is a treatment.” Merely treating the disease and managing the subsequent complications is where we began.

Now is the time for a cure.
 

Where We Are Now

Today, we are truly closer to a T1D cure than ever before.

A Practical Cure rests on the ability to replenish the body’s insulin-producing cells or replace them with new ones. From there, they must be protected from the immune system’s attack.

Islet transplantation to replace lost cells has made strides in the last few years. Vertex Pharmaceuticals has multiple trials testing VX-880 (Zimislecel), using manufactured stem cell-derived islets protected by immunosuppression. The company is conducting its pivotal phase III trial—one step before market approval—and is close to establishing the first human-grade, scalable, FDA-approved replacement cell line for T1D.

Cell protection solutions are further behind, but a front-runner is emerging. Sana Biotechnology made headlines in 2025 for UP421, its line of cadaver-sourced cells, gene edited as protection from the immune system. In January, Sana announced the cells survived and continued to produce insulin in an established T1D patient at four weeks without immunosuppression—a human trial first. These results have persisted to the six-month mark, and though early, indicate a promising avenue to overcome the immune attack.

Vertex and Sana are only two of the growing number of commercial entities investing in these T1D research pathways. Increasing for-profit involvement signals that the speed to a cure may be accelerating.

It is an exciting time in T1D research, and this is no time to take the foot off the gas
 

What It Will Take to Cross the Finish Line

Practical Cure research projects should be overseen, funded, and guided by entities best equipped to deliver progress at specific stages of development. Commercial enterprises, large nonprofits, and government agencies each have unique, invaluable expertise that is best utilized at different stages.

Cell Supply: In the Commercial Domain

Today, cell supply solutions are in the hands of commercial entities best suited to seeing later-stage therapies succeed. Though Vertex is the front-runner with VX-880 approaching FDA approval, other for-profits have entered clinical trials, and more join the fold each year.

Ultimately, a Practical Cure will be delivered by a commercial entity that acquires or develops a therapy and brings it to the marketplace. For-profits are under pressure and motivation to deliver a return on investment as soon as possible. This motivation demands expediency, and paired with unique expertise in manufacturing, marketing, and distribution, will ensure a clinical-stage cell supply solution is brought to the patients who need it without delay.

Nonprofit Role Redefined

Historically, the conversation on cell supply solutions was centered on large diabetes nonprofits whose funding drove this early research. Now, nonprofits must refocus and narrow their involvement to other essential areas, or risk redundant funding on therapies already well developed.

Now is the time for nonprofits to heighten focus on cell protection solutions, a necessary pathway that is less progressed and requires as much manpower and resources as possible. Nonprofit expertise is best suited to fund promising solutions that demonstrate success, to bridge the gap between early animal models and human trials. Nonprofits also play an essential role in building a roadmap from early-stage research to regulatory approval, and can provide pre-clinical-grade stem cells to test emerging protection solutions.

Early Government Funding

Grants given by government agencies are best suited to the earliest, exploratory stages of research. This research is conducted in test tubes and simulations. where Initial hypotheses are tested. This funding stimulates novel ideas and innovation that may be decades away from practical application and pose a high risk.
 

The Donor Role

T1D community members, you play a vital role in Practical Cure progress. There are steps you can take to push the progress of research at every development stage.

Commercial Entities: Support their work. Track progress. Invest if you have the means to do so. Vote.
Nonprofits: Add a note when donating to specify you are giving to protection research. See what your nonprofit of choice is funding.
Government: Write to government funders about the unmet need in Practical Cure research funding.
 
T1D community members, thank you for taking the time with us today to reflect on type 1 diabetes and what it will take for a Practical Cure.