DIABETES NEWS
IS HUMAN INSULIN (WALMART INSULIN) SAFE FOR YOU? By H. Kaan Akturk, MD and Viral N. Shah, MD
The discovery of insulin during the summer of 1921 by Banting, was one of the most influential discoveries in medical history. It has saved lives of millions of people living with diabetes around the world. In 1923, Banting, Collip, and Best sold the patent to the University of Toronto for $1 in a hope that insulin will be accessible and affordable to all who need it. Now, insulin is one of the costliest life-saving medications in the USA. Unfortunately, many deaths have been reported due to lack of availability or unaffordability of insulin around the world. Currently, we are living in an unprecedented time where a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) had already infected 1.3 million people in the USA and resulted in more than 80,000 deaths at the time of writing. An unintended consequence of preventing the spread of this virus has resulted in more than 24 million people losing their job. This resulted in a great toll on people living with a chronic condition such as type 1 diabetes. Many questions have been raised on insulin affordability during this time and many people are wondering about the use of older insulins such as human insulin (e.g. Walmart ReliOn insulin) to reduce their insulin cost. In this review, we intend to provide details on different types of insulin preparation and how they are different and some common questions you may have around human insulin use.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT T YPES OF INSULIN AVAIL ABLE IN THE MARKET? After the initial discovery of insulin by Banting and Best, Insulin was purified from animal pancreas (cows and pigs), commonly known as Bovine or Porcine insulin. These insulins are no longer available in the market. In early 1970, researchers made insulin from E.Coli (a type of bacteria) using recombinant DNA technology. These insulins are like human insulin. Examples of these types of insulin are Humulin-R (Regular insulin) and Humulin-N (N stands for NPH, intermediate-acting insulin), Novolin-R, and Novolin-N.
Human insulins were not perfect, and they have unpredictable absorption. Therefore, scientists have modified amino acid sequences to develop rapidacting and long-acting insulin called as insulin analogs. Examples of insulin analogs are Lantus, Levemir, Tresiba, Toujeo, and Basaglar.
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