People with diabetes look to tech and drug innovation for the promise of better blood sugar control or more convenient treatment, and many are acutely aware of new devices and drugs working their way through the regulatory pipeline. So when news hits that a diabetes-related product or treatment becomes available overseas but not in the U.S., there is palpable frustration. While we depend on the FDA to keep us safe from unsavory medical manufacturing and drug processing practices that are rampant in other parts of the world, there are many within the diabetes community who feel the FDA is too slow to approve new diabetes products, especially when compared with its European counterpart, the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

T1 diabetes blogger Bob Schrichte says he hears a lot of frustration within the Type 1 community about the pace of FDA approval for diabetes treatments. While he can manage his A1C well with the treatments available in the U.S., he knows others aren’t so lucky.