Will new insulin delivery system sell?

Can David succeed where Goliath failed?

A little-known Southern California biotech company developing an inhalable version of insulin for diabetics received ominous news recently: The world's biggest drug company by sales said its inhaler device bombed at the drugstore.

The high-profile failure of Pfizer Inc.'s Exubera is considered one of the biggest flops in modern pharmaceutical history. The company hoped to collect as much as $2 billion a year in revenue but reported that the product took in just $12 million over the past nine months.