'Fix-it' mentality behind drive to beat diabetes

David Collinson says he 'got out his chequebook' when his son developed type 1 diabetes. Photo / Dean Purcell

David Collinson says he comes from a family who want to fix things.

He also comes from a family - the Fishers of Fisher & Paykel - in which many have had type 1 diabetes.

When his 2-year-old son developed the incurable disease of no known cause in 1987, the then-importer of clothing and handcrafts turned his talents to trying to fix it.

"So I got my chequebook out," the 59-year-old told the Herald this week.

Mr Collinson's colleagues, co-investors and the University of Auckland are paying tribute to his tenacity in building, from scratch, the diabetes treatment company that may be on the cusp of something great.

Mr Collinson was diagnosed with the skin cancer melanoma four years ago. It had already spread. He has had surgery, radiotherapy and an experimental immunotherapy from the Malaghan Institute in Wellington which he credits with keeping him alive "against all odds".

But now tumours have spread to his lungs and his brain and he faces a bleak outlook, although his verve, his sparkle, remains undimmed.

From his chequebook, millions of dollars have poured into the business he founded with diabetes specialist Professor Bob Elliott.

It is not only money that he has brought to Diatranz and its successor Living Cell Technologies, but also his ability to promote the company's concept of transplanting, into human diabetics, coated insulin-producing cells from pigs, and to enthuse others enough to contribute their own capital.

Professor Elliott recalls how quickly Mr Collinson grasped type 1 diabetes and the death of the cells that make insulin. He asked why new cells couldn't be put in and they discussed the poor progress of US trials to treat the disease with insulin-producing cells from human cadavers.

"I said I was mainly interested in trying to prevent the disease. He said, 'Couldn't you put some new cells in and use some of these things you have been trying, to prevent the cells being destroyed, give them at the same time', which was amazing for a guy with no biology background whatsoever. I hadn't really thought about it, but I said, 'Well yes I suppose that would be not unreasonable'."

Mr Collinson persuaded him to resume research he had done 30 years earlier which involved transplanting pig cells into diabetic mice within a barrier to protect them from the immune system.

After "a sniff of success", Mr Collinson persuaded Professor Elliott, who was initially reluctant, to leave his job at Auckland University. Mr Collinson quit importing. Together they started Diatranz.

Two decades later - after a rocky regulatory road, improvements in encapsulating the cells, animal and human studies, listing on the Australian stock exchange, and clear success in a Russian trial, in which two people are now free of insulin injections - the company is awaiting only the approval of the Minister of Health, Tony Ryall, before starting a trial at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland.

Mr Collinson believes that with possibly 30 million type 1 diabetics worldwide, New Zealand is on the edge of a technological revolution based on animal-to-human transplants. And this could be just the start of a whole new industry.

Living Cell is developing pig-cell treatments for Parkinson's and Mr Collinson says many more diseases could be treated in this way.

The university's vice-chancellor, Stuart McCutcheon, acknowledged Mr Collinson's "very significant role" in supporting diabetes research and its commercialisation.

In a letter to Mr Collinson, whom he describes as an extraordinarily positive influence on the development of the pig-cell treatment, he says many in New Zealand do not appreciate the single-minded dedication required to convert basic research into a clinical, commercial therapy.