Immune therapies for type 1 diabetes

Are there immune treatments for type 1?

Researchers are finding and testing immune therapies which can slow the immune attack that causes type 1 and preserve some of the beta cells. These drugs are at various stages of the research pipeline, ranging from being in early clinical trials to being licensed for the public in some countries.

Teplizumab

Teplizumab is the world’s first disease-modifying therapy for type 1 diabetes. Clinical trials found daily injections of the drug for two weeks delayed the onset of type 1 for an average of three years. In June 2026, teplizumab was approved for use on the NHS. If you have been identified as stage 2 type 1 diabetes, please contact your healthcare team to discuss how you can access this treatment.

Find out more about teplizumab in our FAQs about teplizumab.

Ustekinumab

Ustekinumab is an immunotherapy drug which is already used to treat other autoimmune conditions, including psoriasis. Researchers in the UK are now testing ustekinumab in clinical trials of children recently diagnosed with type 1.

ATG

Anti Thymocyte Globulin (ATG) is an immunosuppressant drug, meaning it stops your body’s immune system mistakenly attacking and destroying its own cells. It is currently used when someone has an organ transplantation, to stop their body from rejecting the new organ.

The results showed that both the higher and lower doses of ATG worked similarly in preserving C-peptide concentration. C peptide is a protein released into the blood when insulin is secreted, meaning it can be used to see if beta cells are still functioning. The lower dose, however, had fewer side effects when compared to the higher dose. This is a positive result for the researchers as it proved that ATG at a lower dose is safe and effective in people as young as five years old.

Other immune therapies being developed

There are lots of other immune therapies being developed and tested by researchers all over the world. By trying lots of different drugs instead of putting all our hopes in one, we are maximising our chances of finding the most effective immune therapy for type 1.

Some of the immune therapy drugs currently being tested in clinical trials of people with type 1 include:

• SAB-142
• Baracitinib

Click the links above to find out more about the clinical trial of each drug.

Immune therapies in clinical trials

We are funding the UK T1D Research Consortium, which is a clinical trials platform testing immune therapies. Find out more about clinical trials and how to take part.

We are also funding Professor Colin Dayan, who helped set up the UK T1D Research Consortium, to establish another clinical trials testing platform: T1D Plus. Colin will use this new platform to test multiple drugs at a time to streamline the clinical trials process. This will speed up the time it takes for immune therapies to reach the people with type 1 who need them.

Find out more about T1D Plus and how it will help fast-track drugs through the research pipeline.

Research into shared causes of autoimmune conditions

We’re looking beyond type 1 diabetes to better understand the immune system. There are more than 80 autoimmune conditions known to science – including type 1, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis – and we know there are similarities in the genetic risk factors for many of these conditions.

We set up a partnership called Connect Immune Research with Versus Arthritis, the MS Society and the British Society for Immunology to bring together scientists with expertise across different autoimmune conditions, to discover the common threads in their work.

Find out more about the Connect Immune Research partnership.

We will create a world without type 1

We have already invested more than £120 million in immune research across the world. From the early research that underpinned the development of teplizumab, to cutting-edge research to genetically edited immune cells, we are leading the race to a cure.

With Breakthrough T1D UK researchers at the forefront of ground-breaking immunology discoveries, we’re confident that we will create a world without type 1 diabetes.