It is clear that insulin keeps me alive. But the delivery mechanism is also important. We need pens to be accurate and robust. If they are not accurate, then it becomes immaterial what insulin dose we have, because without accuracy you cannot guarantee that you are taking it. Similar with robustness - if a pen will break after a few months then our treatment is adversely affected.
A few years ago I was moved to Humalin S and the HumaPen. This was a cheap tacky device, of the type of quality that you would expect from a toy in a Christmas cracker. Lilly say you should change them every three years, but two failed for me in two years. After the second one I went to get a prescription from my doctor to get a replacement and she refused to write the prescription (that's another story). So I bought a new one online, only to find that the cheap tacky plastic pen had been replaced with a metal pen because Lilly admitted that there was a design fault with the plastic one (but said that it was still safe, I beg to differ).
I use a Novopen for my basal insulin. The pen I use is is the silver NovoPen Classic and this has a maximum dose of 70 units. I take the maximum dose. Today I checked the currently available pens for Novo insulins. The most recent pen is NovoPen 4. The maximum dose is 60. Novo no longer make a pen that will deliver 70 units. Novo have lost those extra 10 units somewhere and it appears that when I need to replace my current pen, I will have to lose 10 units too. (I am not quite sure how I will do that.)
I really cannot see how we, as patients, are getting the best out of this ludicrous situation. If all the manufacturers standardised on the same cartridge shape, we could use the same pen whatever insulin we used. Then the pen manufacturing companies could compete on the pen design: some would sell the cheap tacky ones that only last a year, others would sell robust designs that would last 5 years. Some would sell pens for low doses, others for high doses. In fact, if the cartridge was standardised and offered licence free, companies other than the insulin manufacturers would sell pens. The NHS would chose the pens that they preferred, or if we preferred some other feature (different colour, say) we could buy our own.
In my case, it appears that the pen determines my treatment, so that when I need to replace my basal insulin pen it will, in effect, force my doctor to change how he thinks it is best to treat my diabetes. Should a pharmaceutical company be allowed to do that?
Richard
A few years ago I was moved to Humalin S and the HumaPen. This was a cheap tacky device, of the type of quality that you would expect from a toy in a Christmas cracker. Lilly say you should change them every three years, but two failed for me in two years. After the second one I went to get a prescription from my doctor to get a replacement and she refused to write the prescription (that's another story). So I bought a new one online, only to find that the cheap tacky plastic pen had been replaced with a metal pen because Lilly admitted that there was a design fault with the plastic one (but said that it was still safe, I beg to differ).
I use a Novopen for my basal insulin. The pen I use is is the silver NovoPen Classic and this has a maximum dose of 70 units. I take the maximum dose. Today I checked the currently available pens for Novo insulins. The most recent pen is NovoPen 4. The maximum dose is 60. Novo no longer make a pen that will deliver 70 units. Novo have lost those extra 10 units somewhere and it appears that when I need to replace my current pen, I will have to lose 10 units too. (I am not quite sure how I will do that.)
I really cannot see how we, as patients, are getting the best out of this ludicrous situation. If all the manufacturers standardised on the same cartridge shape, we could use the same pen whatever insulin we used. Then the pen manufacturing companies could compete on the pen design: some would sell the cheap tacky ones that only last a year, others would sell robust designs that would last 5 years. Some would sell pens for low doses, others for high doses. In fact, if the cartridge was standardised and offered licence free, companies other than the insulin manufacturers would sell pens. The NHS would chose the pens that they preferred, or if we preferred some other feature (different colour, say) we could buy our own.
In my case, it appears that the pen determines my treatment, so that when I need to replace my basal insulin pen it will, in effect, force my doctor to change how he thinks it is best to treat my diabetes. Should a pharmaceutical company be allowed to do that?
Richard
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