The BANDIT trial results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on the 7^th of December 2023.

The trial found that treatment with a commonly used rheumatoid arthritis medication called baricitinib can delay the progression of type 1 diabetes in people recently diagnosed. Led by Professor’s Thomas Kay and Helen Thomas from St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVI) in Melbourne, ATIC researchers found that baricitinib given within the first 100 days after diagnosis with type 1 diabetes can preserve the body’s ability to make its own insulin.

Despite major advances in insulin delivery technology over the last decade, management of type 1 diabetes is incredibly burdensome on those diagnosed and their families, requiring a relentless battle to manage blood glucose levels.

This world-first research, supported by JDRF Australia and JDRF International gives hope that immunotherapy treatment may soon provide an alternative to injected insulin for people with type 1 diabetes, with baricitinib being the first disease-modifying treatment of its kind that can be delivered as a tablet.