| The real holy grail of diabetes treatment is a little bit further than what you were suggesting. The real cure comes from successfully recreating islet cells from the application of cloned stem cells. Utimately the goal is to create stem cells based on the patient's genetic material. When these are injected into the pancreas, they will recreate islet cells. No further drugs are needed.
However, there are two problems with this form of therapy as yet. 1 - we haven't been able to successfully clone stem cells in such a way that we can actually use them like this just yet. We're probably about 15 years away from getting there. 2 - even if we are able to recreate the islet cells, current theory suggests that these same cells are actually destroyed by the body by precisely the same mechanism that caused T1s to develop the condition in the first place. That's the real stumbling block, and it's even speculated that if we could inhibit that mechanism, the body might be able to regrow islet cells of its own accord without any further interference.
As yet, the best forms of treatment for diabetes in T1s remain insulin injections and insulin pumps. All other alternatives are largely ineffective. The inhaler system is very much a dead end and a prime example of marketing divisions totally and utterly misunderstanding what people with diabetes actually need. I'm sorry to say this, but if you develop T1 and want to keep the use of your eyes and legs, you will need to have needles stuck in you, one way or another.  | 
