Hi, Porcine, or Hypurin Porcine Insulin is insulin derived from a pig. There are 2 varieties of animal insulin available, beef and pork. both varieties are available in long-acting and short-acting. They come in pen-cartridge or vial form.
I changed to Hypurin Porcine a year and a half ago, and it's the best insulin I've been on, and wish I'd been offered it at diagnosis. I'd been on synthetic "human" insulin since diagnosis in 89, and was changed to Lantus in 2004, and told it was the way forward for diabetes. I can assure you that for many people Lantus is not the 24 hour flat-profile it claims to be. I, like Fujifilm, had a hellish time on lantus-4 years of it! I had lousy blood-sugar control, it was unpredictable, and didn't seem to work some days. Aside from that it made me so ill, I was constantly exhausted and in pain; it ruined my life- that's no exaggeration, I am not an isolated case.
I always wonder why doctors are only prescribing Lantus or Levemir, when there are plenty of other long-acting insulins available- Novo-Nordisk (who manufacture Levemir) and Sanofi Aventis (Lantus) are out to corner the insulin market, whatever the cost to patients. The result is less choice of treatment for patients generally, but especially for those experiencing problems with synthetic, or analogue insulins.
If you're interested in looking further into animal insulins or alternatives to the 2 "L"s, there's a good website that will give you loads of info
http://www.iddtinternational.org/
Just because one insuln suits one person, it will not suit everyone; we are all different. It's the same with reactions to any drug or medication.
You should do your own research and make an informed choice about what insulin you decide to change to, but ultimately it should be your choice.
Let us know how you get on.
Jus