Competition is Fierce ... Not sure if this is considered competition... but it would be the next best thing to the Cell Pouch. This invention is wild... and show's how hard researchers are competing. In this Patch from North Carolina researchers, the Insulin Beta Cells are actually housed on the outer area of the patch linked under the skin through microneedle amplifiers. So this technique prevents immune attack against the beta cells because the immune system only sees the microneedles. Again... any diabetic would rather have an implant... but this inventions is still astonishing! And the next best thing. I can see Big Pharma pushing this harder because they would make more money off the patches. They won't last more than a day or so.
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-created-a-painless-patch-that-can-automatically-control-diabetes
The new patch works by linking microneedles up to live, cultured beta cells. If that doesn't sound too fun, don't worry, the needles are each roughly the size of an eyelash, which the scientists say means they don't hurt when they're applied.
Those microneedles poke into capillaries and provide a link between the beta cells and a patient's blood stream, and the team has developed something called 'glucose-signal amplifiers', which respond to rising blood sugar levels and communicate that message instantly back to the beta cells.