DIABETICS could be getting an early Christmas present thanks to a York entrepreneur whose firm has become the first in the UK to design and manufacture a needle-free insulin delivery system.

Ian Townsend, chief executive of The Medical House PLC, who lives in Ouseburn, announced that because the MHI-500 system was months ahead of schedule the UK's 575,000 insulin-injecting diabetics would be able to stop conventionally puncturing their skin from December.

The MHI-500 uses a high pressure nozzle system, instead of a needle, to deliver a stream of insulin through the skin, accurately, quickly and painlessly.

Mr Townsend, a former boss of Sheffield United football club, who in 1997 sold his heavyweight accountancy firm Townsend Management Consultants in Monkgate, York, to TMC Accounting, went on to start his Sheffield-based medical information services organisation which and floated then expanded into manufacturing.

The device _- a new generation of the Vitajet 3 system - was commissioned in a joint project with Bioject in the US in April. The first of the instruments should roll off the production lines next month and, given regulatory approval, will be on the market by December, costing £120 plus a weekly cost of £1 for consumables. If so, the marketing will be months ahead of schedule. Mr Townsend said: "Last year there were an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 needle-stick injuries in the UK. We've fast-tracked the MHI-500 to reduce this number as quickly as possible."

He said his company was also planning to develop a new needle-free product specifically targeted at diabetics who use lower-dose insulin and one which will include a built-in insulin cartridge to ensure greater accuracy.

"It's already generating a huge amount of interest from insulin dependent diabetics, from clinicians and GPs, with requests for advanced orders already being made," said Mr Townsend.