Artificial insulin first released

Diabetes got its name from the ancient Greeks, for the sweet smell of urine excreted by those suffering from it. Doctors could do little more than monitor and record the symptoms of diabetics for centuries, until they got a better sense of the human anatomy and the functions of the different organs. Even then, as late as the 19th century, physicians believed the organ controlling release of the sugary substance into the blood stream was the brain stem. Breakthrough finally came from Canada, where a not-too-successful orthopedic surgeon first made the first tenuous connection between the pancreas and the substance insulin.

On this day, April 15, in 1923, an artificially produced form of insulin first became widely commercially available. It was manufactured Eli Lilly, the drug company that would also release the first Polio vaccine on the market several decades later.

Early insulin forms no doubt improved the lives of sufferers, but administering it was none too pleasant. Diabetics had to endure several daily injections directly into the muscles. Because the substance was essentially refined bovine or swine insulin, its effects were short-lived.  Longer-lasting, genetically-engineered insulin came later, from Denmark